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I Made the U.S. Dietary Supplement Law. I Think It Needs to Be Rewritten.
A loophole in the Dietary Supplement Act has led to thousands of hospitalizations
On December 25, 2019, Emily Goss underwent liver transplant surgery to replace her failing organ. The condition came on suddenly; in just three weeks, the 23-year-old went from being perfectly healthy to suffering from acute liver failure. The suspected culprit is a dietary supplement Goss had been taking for several months called Balance, which the company Alani Nu claims can “support hormonal balance, weight management, complexion, and fertility.”
The case is the latest in a long series of serious illnesses and even deaths caused by potent over-the-counter supplements that can contain either prohibited or prescription drugs. Public health experts and even those who work in and around the supplement industry are now calling for the reform of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which is supposed to regulate supplements through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but in reality offers little scrutiny.
Two unlikely allies in this mission are Scott Bass, a partner at the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, who helped draft and negotiate DSHEA in 1994 from the industry side, and Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of…
