NEWS RELEASE
NHF Sends Merck Packing without Its Toxic Vet Drug Approved by Codex!
But Cult Leaders Excoriated NHF for Having Challenged its False Religion
July 10, 2018
NHF president Scott Tips at Rome Codex meeting, July 2018
Imagine a drug for animals that has no purpose other than to bulk up that animal with muscle so that when it is slaughtered, the rancher (or more likely the ranch industry) can make a few extra dollars off of each animal. The drug has no health benefits, but instead has health detriments, not only for the poor animals but for the poor humans who then unknowingly consume its residue-tainted meat. Add one more toxic residue to the synthetic stew that nowadays comprises the typical human diet. And that toxic drug is zilpaterol hydrochloride.
The 41st session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission met in Rome, Italy last week (July 2-6, 2018) and one of the hot topics concerned our defeat of the zilpaterol standard last April in Chicago at the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods (CCRVDF). NHF played a key role in that defeat and it left the Merck vet-drug maker and its phony front group “Drugs for Animals” fuming! (Read our full report of that victory and the Codex science representative’s personal attack upon NHF.)
Meet Zilpaterol
Like its evil twin ractopamine, zilpaterol hydrochloride (tradename Zilmax®) is a beta-adrenergic agonist (bAA) drug that is given to cattle and other food animals to take nutrients away from fat production and push them instead into muscle, creating a leaner and ostensibly more-valuable animal. Zilmax is about 125 times more potent than ractopamine. Although not a steroid, the drug does have steroid-like effects on animals and humans alike. These effects can be devastating.
So, it was a great victory to keep a standard for this dangerous vet drug from advancing, especially when Merck – thinking it owns the CCRVDF and had a victory in the bag – was defeated. But all of the pro-zilpaterol forces were trying to salvage whatever they could from this disaster by painting the EU, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, China, and the others opposed to this vet drug as having acted on “unscientific” grounds.
What is Science?
Keep in mind that the Commission is the parent body for all of the various Codex committees and reviews their work on a regular basis. The zilpaterol standard was one such work that came up for review, at least in the manner in which the committee handled it.
Between meetings, Merck and its minions (which include Drugs for Animals and the various regional branch regulatory offices beholden to Merck, such as the Australian, American, and New Zealand “regulatory” authorities), had complained to the Codex Executive Committee about how unfair it was that – in their warped view – the Codex Procedural Manual had not been followed and their precious toxic-drug standard had not been advanced to victory as they had expected, and all because of non-scientific objections. Most of the first day’s discussion at the Commission meeting in Rome was about the lack of scientific objection to zilpaterol and how the non-scientific objections made by the EU, Norway, Switzerland, and others could not count for holding zilpaterol back.
When NHF had its chance to speak on the first day of the Commission meeting, however, NHF made it clear that it had both attended the previous CCRVDF meeting and raised scientific objections to the zilpaterol standard under consideration at that time, so that the decision to hold back that standard was based as well on scientific arguments. NHF also challenged the validity of many scientific studies and asked the question of all those delegates who had argued that “we must follow science” what science they actually meant to follow since so much of it was based on nonsense. Finally, NHF stated our opinion that contrary to the considerable hand-wringing by the pro-zilpaterol forces, the decision made at the last CCRVDF meeting to hold back the zilpaterol standard actually reflected much credit upon Codex.
Unfortunately, however, although victorious now, we face a real fight on our hands in two years’ time when the CCRVDF meets once again …. If you want to keep drugs designed to fatten food-production animals out of your body, NHF will need your support more than ever as we take on Merck once again.
Welcome to Rome, Kind of …
On the 4th of July, the Commission meeting, which had started at 9:00 a.m., ran until nearly 10:30 p.m.! So, while America was in full celebration on the 4th of July, NHF was fighting hard for the Planet. The meeting finally had to end that night because the translators quit.
Realize that the meeting room is a disaster because the INGOs (such as the National Health Federation) must sit in the tiniest of seats with pull-down desks that would cramp a 10-year-old (and that make the worst economy seating on any airline flight you have been on look luxurious by comparison). Plus, there are no buttons to push if you want to announce your wish to speak out on an issue. Instead, you must flag down a “runner” who then telephones to the front desk, and then maybe, just maybe, if you are called upon you will then have one of those hand-held microphones brought to you to speak.
Unfortunately, too, we now have a chairman who, in violation of the Codex Procedural Manual, believes in letting the country delegates speak until they have exhausted the very last and least-complete thoughts in their heads before he even considers calling on any of the INGOs to speak. That’s how it was this night when at 10:00 pm NHF wished to speak out in order to support India’s call for new work on Endocrine Disruptive pesticides, to rein them in. Iran supported India, but otherwise it was the usual suspects (Australia, Canada, the USA, & Nigeria) who opposed any new work on EDCs!
NHF was flagged up to speak for at least 20-30 minutes and the Chairman never called on NHF, until at last the translators went home and the meeting ended. Scott Tips went up to the head table and let the chairman and the Codex secretariat know exactly how he felt. Codex may talk a big game about “fairness” but it often comes up way short of the mark.
Regardless, given adequate funding, NHF will be at the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residue meeting in China next year to support India’s proposal for new work to stop the indiscriminate use of EDCs, which alter hormones affecting fertility in addition to a whole host of health problems for man and wildlife.
“While most in America have duly celebrated this country’s birthday, this one man stands on the international scene protecting our freedom. It is sad most in this country don’t even know his name, nor the tremendous sacrifice he is making on our behalf.” – Alice Reynolds.
Your Health is at Stake
NHF stood its ground and defeated the zilpaterol standard at the Codex Committee meeting in Chicago last April and then again held the line at the Codex Commission meeting in Rome this month. Merck is flaming mad. NHF’s reputation for “every time you open your mouth, you cost us money” set Merck back in lost sales but also in the millions it takes to get it to the Codex stage of global trade. The recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) standard went nowhere either. So, all in all, we did well this year – so far.
But, your health is always still at stake anytime Codex meets. Many of the delegates are nothing more than government-paid employees of the pesticide and drug industries, who care nothing whatsoever for your health. And most of the INGOs are front groups for the same industries, masquerading as dispensers of science when the reality is that they dispense nothing but disease and death.
At this most recent meeting, only two consumer groups were present and NHF was the only one that is also a health-freedom organization as well. Your health is our concern and we will continue doing our best to protect it in our determined, signature style, with arguments based upon real science.