Blumenthal Refutes USA Today Column

AUSTIN, Tex.Industry organization American Botanical Council (ABC) is responding to a recent opinion column in USA Today written by Kevin Pho, M.D. According to ABC, the column, "Avoid Herbal Supplements," disseminates inaccurate information on herbal and dietary supplement safety, including citation of the recent BMC Medicine article on DNA barcoding analysis.

Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC, sent the letter to the newspaper on Nov. 21, which reads, "With all due respect to Dr. Pho, it appears that he is not adequately familiar with issues related to the quality, regulation, and clinical research on many popular herbal dietary supplements sold in the U.S. market."

The letter cites three main errors with Dr. Pho's opinion piece: a lack of knowledge in the supplement regulations, analytical testing of herbal products and adverse event reports (AERs). At one point in the column, the author wrote, "In 2012, FDA blamed the herbal industry for causing more than 50,000 adverse events annually." ABC and Blumenthal, in his letter, responded, "In fact, FDAs Division of Dietary Supplement Programs Director, Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., has stated that in 2012 there were a total of 3,249 serious adverse effects reported to FDA for all dietary supplements (not just herbals). This is a significantly lower figure (only about 6.5 percent of what Dr. Pho has erroneously reported)."

This isn't the first letter to the editor Blumenthal has penned this month; previously, he sent one to The New York Times clarifying issues with the DNA barcoding study.