COUNCIL for RESPONSIBLE NUTRITION 1300 19th Street, N.W., Suite 310 Washington, D.C. 20036-1609 (202) 872-1488 fax (202) 872-9594 Internet: www. crnusa.org
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mary Burnette; 202-872-1488; 703-759-5984 (Home)
E-mail [email protected]
CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTS ARE BENEFICIAL AND SAFE, TIGHTER STANDARDS WOULD PRODUCE NO MEDICAL OR SCIENTIFIC ADVANTAGE
Washington, D.C. -- January 27, 1997 -- The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), backed by medical experts, reaffirmed today that calcium products and supplements which meet current federal standards are a safe and highly beneficial source of calcium. CRN's announcement is in response to a California activist group's petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking even tighter standards for calcium products and supplements.
Calcium is an essential mineral that is critical for maintaining good health and protecting against osteoporosis, a disease that affects 28 million Americans and is the major cause of bone fracture in the elderly.
"There is no cause for concern about the safety of calcium supplements and products," said Dr. Annette Dickinson, Ph.D., Director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for CRN. "These products meet federally mandated standards which are based on sound scientific data. Consumers should take the recommended amount of calcium daily. Consumers should not be discouraged from taking them or think they have to change products for any reason," she added. Dickinson also pointed out that the FDA's position on this matter has been to reassure consumers that there is no risk associated with products now on the market that meet current federal standards.
According to the CRN, laboratory testing shows that calcium products and supplements meet standards established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, as well as California's Proposition 65 limit for lead. This is because calcium acts as a lead inhibitor to dramatically reduce the body's absorption of lead. "There is no evidence of any kind that these products do anything but provide health advantages, just like fruits, vegetables and dairy products," Dickinson said. "The petition for tighter standards would change the amount of lead in calcium products and food insignificantly, and the difference amounts to a few grains of sand in the Louisiana SuperDome."
Dr. Jay Murray, a toxicologist who has served on California's Proposition 65 Scientific Advisory Panel, emphasizes the value of calcium's unique ability to inhibit the body's absorption of lead. According to Murray, "an adequate intake of calcium may be among the best ways to reduce the body's lead uptake." He asserted that low levels of lead in calcium products and supplements do not pose a significant health risk and should not trigger the need for a label warning under Prop 65.
"Consumers are exposed to about the same insignificant amounts of lead by consuming calcium in the foods they eat as they are with calcium supplements," said Dr. Barbara Levine, Director of the Calcium Information Center at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. "These levels pose no health threat, and the public should not be discouraged from taking calcium supplements to ensure adequate intake of this important nutrient."
The U.S. FDA recently analyzed a national sample of foods for their lead content, and CRN has conducted similar tests on calcium products and supplements. These studies show trace amounts of lead in virtually all of them. Those small amounts in calcium products and supplements are generally less -- often much less -- than the federal standard of 3ppm (parts per million).
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has asserted that pregnant women absorb more lead and that technology exists to produce lower lead products. The CRN stated that a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed a clinical study with 14 trials involving pregnant women. The studies identified no significant side effects of increased calcium supplementation.
"The scientific studies support current standards and the safety of current calcium supplement and product formulations," CRN's Dickinson said. "NRDC's call for new national standards will probably do more harm than good," she added, "and it isn't the first time they have put forth a questionable concern based on faulty science. People need calcium supplements, and NRDC's suggestion that the rules need to be tightened might create unnecessary public fear."
CRN has been working with the California Attorney General since 1994 to develop an appropriate standard for lead in calcium supplements which recognizes that calcium dramatically lowers the absorption of lead.
Major calcium product and supplement suppliers such as members of the Association for Responsible Calcium Products, strongly supported the CRN statement.
"Our first concern is and has always been public health and safety," said John Cordaro, president of CRN. "The calcium products and supplements already on the market are safe and highly beneficial. Scientific research proves that, and millions of consumers use them safely every day."
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