Herbal supplements in US commonly have traces of contaminants

Nearly all companies are aware of the liability risk in any given business and they know what labeling info is necessary to protect themselves relative to warnings and info. It is in their best interest to label warnings.There is a far greater health and life risk in food diet, especially fat foods, junk foods candies, icecream pop, etc than in the herbals, yet nobody is clamoring for additional regulation of the food industry.

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

I believe all of these things should be regulated, very heavily. Much junk food should be sold in the poison aisle, and 'herbals' in the gardening section. It really comes down to an issue of mislabeling... everything's mislabeled and sold as something it's not, always intentionally so.

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"Can we say the chair on the cat, for example? Or the basket in the person? No, we can't..." - Harriet J. Ottenheimer

"I have a sore throat."
2000 BC : "Eat this root"
1200 AD : "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1500 AD : "That prayer is superstition, drink this elixir."
1800 AD : "That elixir is snake oil, Take this pill."
1950 AD : "That pill is ineffective, Take this antibiotic."
2000 AD : "That antibiotic is artificial, here why dont you eat this root."AbE; Author unknown. I found this on a site of compiled science humour. The original author was not listed and now I cant find the site again. My apologies. Someone should downgrade the message rating.Edited by Dogmafood, : grovelling submission to the regulations

Where does regulation end and freedom begin, in your thinking? How about if guvm't comes on into your garage, basement, yard, kitchen, living room and bedroom and regulate you into total safety?

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

Good thing it is just the Republicans and Tea Party crowd that seem to want to regulate what happens in the bedroom.Of course as usual, that has NOTHING to do with the topic.By the way, there is a thread where you can bring any evidence you think might support the Biblical Exodus myth.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Your post adds nothing to the conversation, is not based upon any evidence or fact and does not even qualify as an anecdote. What is the reason and meaning for the waste of a post?Were you trying to impart some sort of universal wisdom? There are many causes for sore throats. Some need medication, most need rest. A doctor could tell you which. An herbal may or may not be effective. If it is a strep throat a round of antibiotics may be what is needed.So please what was the point your were attempting make?ABE
Since you posted this in quotation marks, is there a source for this?Edited by Theodoric, : No reason given.

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Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts

Nonsense! Most of our herbals have no chemicals in them. Many foods and drinks contain chemicals. What's the difference. They, like most nutritional herbals are not considered drugs.Online Dictionary definition of chemical: Many foods and drinks have chemicals in them.

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

Sorry Buz but that is not just false, it is absurdly false even when considering Homeopathy. Of course with Homeopathy it would be true to say that it contains none of the chemicals they claim are in it.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Then what are they? They are composed of chemicals as are all foods, vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, digestive enzymes, salt, sugar, the entire human body etc.
All are composed of chemical elements as is the air we breathe, the water we drink, the clothes we wear and this keyboard I am typing on.

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

I'm gonna go with funny, which I don't know about you, but I found it funny. A cynical outlook on todays full circle back to pre-medicine times. A journey in sarcasm if you will, where once one thought that an herb would cure, a couple thousand years of advanced medicine later, and some have gone back to those pre-medicine days of herbs curing, instead of antibiotics. Yeah, I'd like to know too. So I can steal the premise. - OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.

Maybe you could be a little more specific about what you mean by "chemical"? If your herbals have any effect at all it's because of the chemicals they contain - the natural chemicals produced by that specific plant, presumably. Not because of any physical constituents they have, or lack, but because of an anti-regulatory game played by the altie-medicine industry - they lobbied to have them falsely considered "food supplements" to escape onerous regulations, even though you've made it abundantly clear that people take them for primarily medical, not nutritional reasons.But if they weren't drugs, they wouldn't do anything, by definition.

Also, Buz, why don't you take aspirin? Aspirin is from willow's bark. Does it not count as a herbal unless it's literally from an herb?

Regulations require the tests. Regulations should also require the companies wishing to profit from the sale of these items to demonstrate that these products are safe and effective for whatever the company is claiming on the label before they are allowed on the market.Are you suggesting that we go back to snake-oil days, when any shyster with a lot of enthusiastic selling techniques can put whatever they want in a bottle and sell it?

Hi Hyro, sorry for the belated reply; That is their explicit purpose, to assure us that drugs have been tested and found to be both effective and safe. As I have demonstrated, you have no way of determining these things on your own, so you must rely on others to do it for you. That few? That's kinda small beer. You know full well that you're only getting those numbers because there are literally billions of people taking medicines. The market for herbals is much smaller. I agree. The FDA is not perfect. Drug company regulation worldwide is not perfect. That's no reason to scrap it all, it's a reason to improve upon the current system. This is doubly true if we're talking about setting up a new and similar system for herbals. Such a system could embrace the best aspects of the FDA and try to avoid its flaws.I do think that the pharma industry could do with a shake up though. Forcing them to publish all their trial data would be a good start, stopping them from cherry-picking what they make public. Nothing but mud-slinging. The two eras are not comparable. When did the "Refer Madness" crowd perform extensive clinical trials? Or publish their data? Never. There is no comparison.Mutate and Survive

Well no, that's not true in my experience. I worked in a large co-op grocery store that sold tons and tons of herbal tea that was not advertized as food, but as medicine. One brand is even called "Traditional Medicinals". People came in all the time with specific ailments they were hoping to help with these teas, which they didn't drink at other times. No buz, those aren't actually supplements. Those are just regular foods, because they have nutritive value.What the FDA defines as "nutritional supplements" are things like St. John's Wort, echinacia, ginko-biloba, ginseng, kava, etc. Things that have no nutritive value.St. John's Wort is something that people take for depression. They take it as an antidepressant. In other words, they use it as a medication to treat their depression. Right? It is relevant if you are claiming that these things are food, though. They aren't culinary herbs, buz. They have no nutritional value. They are thought to have medicinal effects only. Yes, but their effectiveness is also relevant to the topic, as well. Should a company be able to sell an herb as something that has a beneficial effect on high blood pressure if that company cannot demonstrate that the product actually does have the effect they are claiming? How is this known? Indeed, buz, follow the money. The herbal supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar a year big, big business that is mostly owned by Big Pharma! Most of the supplements for sale in the US are grown and manufactured in China, because its cheaper and the regulators for organics and whatnot are less bothersome.