b'NHF-S wedeNR epoRtThe Swedish Food Agency Accepts NHF-Sweden to Shape Health LegislationBY SARA BOOsix or seven he was responsible for. It also explained in great detail how the proposed legislationwouldviolatecertainhuman rights and numerous international conven-tions as well as EU laws. We also disclosed financial data of earnings by those officials in the Swedish Department of Health who were supposed to complete the job.Thegovernmentultimatelyrefused topublishour86-pagereportsubmitted through KMR because of insulting attacks ofindividuals,includingNHF-Sweden, although we had done no such thing. We W e are pleased to announceDisturbingly, we discovered that theycontacted Marianne Jenryd, the legal coun-sel for the Swedish Department of Health, who wouldnt pinpoint the presumed at-thattheSwedishFooddid get our request back in 2016, but theytacksbutstillrefusedtopublishthere-Agency 1 hasregisteredsimply filed it without processing it in aport because now, as the excuse evolved, it NHF-Swedentopartici- completedisregardofprotocol.So,itispurportedly revealed too much personal pate in shaping national policy regardingclear now that the Swedish Departmentdata. Hypocritically, though, the Swedish health legislation. Since 2014, and almostof Health decided years ago to silence theDepartmentofHealthandAsplundhad every year after that until now, we havevoice of NHF-Sweden. However, at leastalready published more personal data in applied for this official accreditation with- the National Organization for Complemen- their own reports about the matter. outsuccesstoboththeSwedishDepart- tary Medicine (KomplementrmedicinskaThe Department had also declared that ment of Health 2and sometimes also to theriksfrbundet or KMR, a friendly organiza- it would only send the KMR report in pa-Swedish Medical Products Agency. Despitetion) sent NHF-Swedens 86-page report toper format, payable by those requesting it, their promises to handle it, nothing wasthe government too as their own responseand not simply (and without cost) by email! accomplished year after year. In Octoberto the public proposal. In truth, KMR hadClearly, they did not want our report to be 2019, we persevered, trying yet one morewanted us to help them write a KMR re- read. However, we continued to fight their time, in large part, because of the newlyport, but we had no time. So, we told themunjustdecision.And,finally,wewon proposed legislation, which would greatlythat they could use NHF-Swedens reportthey admitted that there were no insulting restrict alternative medicine in Sweden. astheirownKMRreport.KMRwassoattacks and they would send the report by With our most recent attempt, last Oc- happy about this windfall, they surprisedemail.tober, we finally succeeded and will be ableus by donating 4,000 kroner to NHF-Swe- Then,athirdaffiliatedorganization, to shape Swedish alternative-medicine leg- den,eventhoughwehadnotaskedforthe Swedish Society of Natural Medicine islation in the same general way that NHFanything. (SvenskaNaturmedicinskaSllskapetor does internationally at Codex Alimentari- Keep in mind, as we reported in HealthSNS) sent in NHF-Swedens report, but had us. However, we were not pleased that ourFreedom News (Vol. 37, No. 3, Fall 2019), thatadded some pages and deleted some of the 86-page reportwhich we had laboriouslyDr. Kjell Asplund had been appointed bymost disturbing information, for exam-researched, compiled and written againstthe Swedish government as its lead inves- ple, how much money the persons involved the proposed legislation regarding alterna- tigator in a public inquiry into alternativehad earned. This time the Swedish Depart-tive medicinewould not be published onandcomplementarymedicalcare.Well,ment of Health couldnt do anything but the governments website as NHF-SwedenNHF-Swedens paper was very critical ofpublishthereportonthegovernmental was not yet officially accepted at the timeAsplunds leadership and revealed how hewebsite, as they had run out of arguments. the proposed legislation was released. had only completed one or two tasks out ofHere is the SNS report on the governments 32 H ealtHF reedomN ews /s priNg2020HFN_SPRING-2020_4-29-2020-FINAL.indd 32 4/29/20 10:18 AM'