Capitol Hill BSE
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
DSHEA inadequately protects public from mad cow disease, Public Citizen Health Research Group Deputy Director Peter Lurie, MD, asserts at Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation/Consumer Affairs Subcommittee hearing on bovine spongiform encephalopathy April 4. Due to absence of mandatory premarket review under DSHEA, "an unscrupulous manufacturer could literally take a British cow brain, crush it, dry it out, formulate it into a dietary supplement and export it to the U.S.," he says in written testimony. Lurie also referred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center researcher Scott Norton's letter in July 27 New England Journal of Medicine noting numerous supplements contain raw animal parts and therefore are "susceptible to contamination with the agents of" BSE (1"The Tan Sheet" Aug. 7, 2000, p. 17)