I am writing in response to your editorial of February 12-18, in which you suggest that, because some supplements sold by chain stores contain unlisted ingredients, the herbal supplements industry should be more tightly regulated. Your editorial implies that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should do the job.

I would like to point out that FDA has been lax at best and negligent at worst in protecting the public from danger. In 2006, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) reported 13 instances of adverse reactions in pharmaceuticals approved by the FDA. Some of these life-threatening reactions included liver damage, cardiac arrythmia, hemorrhagic stroke and rhabdomyolysis (muscle cells released into the bloodstream causing kidney failure (see www.citizen.org/hrg1759).

The CSPI goes on to note: “The FDA often relies on advisory committees made up of outside experts to offer science-based advice… on approvals of drugs…. But those panels often include—and are sometimes dominated by—scientists or researchers who have direct financial relationships with the companies whose products are under scrutiny.” The report states that certain FDA advisory committees “have all included industry-funded scientists. On one committee, 10 of 32 panelists investigating the controversial painkillers known as COX-2 inhibitors, including Vioxx, had ties to the makers of those drugs.”

Vioxx, a drug manufactured by Merck, highlights the unreliability of an FDA seal of approval. The drug caused heart attacks, strokes and death before the company, not the FDA, voluntarily recalled it in 2004. Testimony from several physicians and scientists, including one who worked for the FDA, revealed that agency officials knew about the dangers and risks of the drug but hid them (www.drugwatch.com/vioxx/).

A quick search online reveals that the FDA permits the use of hormone disrupting chemicals in canned foods, food packaging and in hand soaps, the latter more than 30 years after the risks of triclosan and triclocarban were first identified. It permits the use of the chemical lindane, a neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor, in lice treatments. The agency has failed to address the connection between the use of antibiotics in meat production and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Ironically, many of the substances and practices approved by the FDA are more life threatening than the adulterated herbal supplements you cite in your editorial. Considering the above examples, along with others that expose the agency’s negligence, my confidence in supplements and vitamins would certainly not be enhanced if the FDA were responsible for guaranteeing their safety.

I would also take issue your statement: “Of course, there is much debate about whether nutritional supplements, contaminated or not, serve any real benefit to consumers.” I am certain that many of us would welcome the opportunity to counter your implied claim that nutritional supplements are not beneficial by citing our own experiences. Large corporate pharmaceutical and medical industries benefit by instilling doubt in the public about any remedy that would deprive them of their multibillion-dollar-a-year profits. These industries have much to lose if people cure themselves, as they have for centuries, with herbs and natural remedies, rather than surgical, pharmaceutical or medical intervention.

It’s no surprise that the large, corporately owned retailers mentioned in your editorial—GNC, Target, WalMart and Walgreens—sell cheap, poorly made merchandise. In a profit-driven market, it’s important for us to be educated consumers and exercise the caution suggested by the adage: “Buyer Beware.” In addition to researching the products we purchase, we should buy supplements at one of our reputable locally owned health food stores where we can find quality merchandise and helpful staff to guide us.

[Marcia Nehemiah is a resident of Lackawaxen, PA. She was the author of The River Reporter column “In Our Hands,” from 2007 to 2013.]