Dear _______________:

I am writing to express my growing concerns over new legislation pending in Congress. As a strong supporter of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), I want to maintain my unrestricted right to purchase dietary supplements. These products should continue to be regulated as foods by the FDA, not as drugs or chemical food additives. However, a number of proposed bills have the potential to diminish my health rights as protected by DSHEA and provide a number of unjust legal and financial advantages to the pharmaceutical industry.

I am opposed to the following bills pending in Congress:

• H.R. 3156 (the Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act) would severely and negatively impact DSHEA by giving the FDA the authority to ban large numbers of dietary supplements or dietary ingredients from the market if they fail unreasonable and arbitrary risk/benefit assessments.
• S. 729/H.R. 1507 (the Safe Food Act of 2005) would create a new federal food safety agency and undermine DSHEA by reclassifying supplements and regulating them as drugs.
• H.R. 2485 (the DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2005) would give the FDA an extra $205 million between now and 2010 to regulate dietary supplements on the dubious grounds that it has not adequately used its authority to enforce DSHEA due to a lack of resources.
• H.R. 2510 (the Dietary Supplement Regulatory Implementation Act of 2005), similar to H.R. 2485, would appropriate an extra $205 million to the FDA to regulate dietary supplements.
• S. 2686 (the Communications, Consumer’s Choice and Broadband Deployment Act) would allow telephone and cable companies to restrict freedom of access to the Internet and, consequently, to websites providing lifesaving and health-promoting information about dietary supplements and other natural therapies.

In addition, I am also alarmed that international efforts to limit my access to effective dietary supplements, such as through the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the FAO/WHO Nutrient Risk Assessment Project, could further restrict my health freedoms.

I support the following bills pending in Congress:

• H.R. 2352 (the Consumers’ Access to Health Information Act) would codify into law the right for natural product retailers and manufacturers to legally discuss the many benefits of natural health products.
• H.R. 2486 (the Dietary Supplement Tax Fairness Act of 2005) would allow the costs of purchasing dietary supplements to be treated as medical expenses under federal law.
• H.R. 4282 (the Health Freedom Protection Act) would prevent the FDA from censoring Americans’ right to truthful information about the health-enhancing benefits of foods and dietary ingredients.
• H.R. 1545 (the Dietary Supplement and Healthy Meal Replacement Tax Parity Act of 2005) would allow people to claim a medical expense deduction for meal-replacement and dietary-supplement products that qualify, or will in the future, for FDA-approved health claims.

As my elected representative, I urge you to vote on all the above bills in accordance with my right to natural health! Scientific and clinical progress in the areas of natural health and Cellular Medicine has documented the many health benefits of nutrient supplementation. This opens up the opportunity to control many of today’s health problems effectively, safely, and without the high cost and dangerous side effects associated with patented pharmaceutical medications.

Thank you for representing my concerns. I look forward to learning your position on these most serious matters.

Respectfully yours,
Your name
Your state