Filipinos, unwilling victims

Is it greed? Or plain stupidity?

The Philippine government wittingly or unwittingly became part of a grand plan by two of the world’s largest drug and chemical companies to control the sale of vitamins when it required the fortification of staples with Vitamin A beginning this year, the uncontrolled consumption of which could lead to illnesses and worse, deaths.

Roche Holding AG of Switzerland and Germany’s BASF AG in 1999 pleaded guilty to charges by the US justice department that they took part in a global conspiracy to fix the prices and control the sales of vitamins. BASF and Roche, agreed to pay record fines totaling $725 million to settle the criminal antitrust charges.

Who controls the supply of iron, which is also part of government’s food fortification program, is another question.

During the life of the conspiracy, the US assistant attorney general then said virtually every American consumer paid artificially inflated prices for vitamins and vitamin-enriched foods in order to feed the greed of these defendants and their co-conspirators who reaped hundreds of millions of dollars.

There were reports that these vitamin companies were also responsible for studies made by highly respected research bodies pushing for Vitamin A fortification of food.

It was also during the years of the conspiracy that our very own government and Congress passed legislation requiring the fortification of staples and other food ingredients.

Approved by former President Estrada on Nov. 7, 2000, Republic Act 8976 which established the Philippine Food Fortification Program, made the fortification of rice with iron, wheat flour with Vitamin A and iron, and refined sugar with Vitamin A, cooking oil with Vitamin A, and other staple foods with nutrients as may later be required by the National Nutrition Council, as mandatory on the part of local manufacturers.

This mandatory fortification for imported and locally-manufactured rice, wheat flour, refined sugar, and cooking oil, starts this year.

With BASF having acquired Roche, the Philippines could only buy Vitamin A from one international supplier.

In India, thousands of children have fallen sick and one girl even died after being given Vitamin A in a UN-sponsored drive to protect against blindness. Preliminary investigations by the state’s health services showed that the children may have fallen ill because of an overdose of Vitamin A.

Vitamin A is regarded as a simple and cost-effective way of preventing blindness among poor families whose diets are often lacking in vitamins.

Excessive intake however could result in liver damage, abnormal bone grown and nerve damage. According to the US Food and Nutrition Board, large doses of Vitamin A may be teratogenic or can cause fetal formation during the first three months of pregnancy.

Iron overdose, by the way, is the leading cause of fatal poisonings in children, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. About 110,000 children have been poisoned with iron since 1986, and 35 children have died.

In fact, the FDA requires all iron or iron salt preparations prominently display a warning message. And pills containing 30 milligrams or more of iron must now be wrapped individually in blister packs, which limit the number of pills a child can consume if they do get hold of the drug. Poisonings have occurred from over-the-counter multivitamin supplements and iron tablets prescribed to pregnant women. Children have died after consuming anywhere from 200 milligrams to 5,850 milligrams of iron.

Instant noodles are among the cheapest and most convenient food source right now, not only for poor families but also for school children. Rice and sugar are staples. Almost everything that we consume contains cooking oil. How can parents possibly keep track of the amount of Vitamin A and iron that their children are taking, not to mention the fact that many of these kids are already taking vitamin supplements?

Our government leaders have a lot of explaining to do.

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