New Effort to Ban DMAA in NY

The New York State Senate is now considering proposed legislation to ban the sale of DMAA, which the bill calls " a synthetic or manufactured chemical compound that is intended to synthesize chemical compounds that are allegedly contained naturally in geranium plants."  The legislation, introduced by NY Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx), said these DMAA ingredients have been put into dietary supplements, but have been shown harmful to consumer of such products.

To boost the profile of the bill's introduction, Klein invited former Baseball star Jose Conseco to speak in support of the ban. Conseco, who has a troubled past with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and tried to blow the whistle on other baseball players using such drugs, said he wanted to support Klein's effort to ban DMAA because young athletes looking for an edge need more education and protection from dangerous supplements and PEDs.

Senator Klein is attacking this problem in exactly the right way," Conseco said. "I know how dangerous these products can be and Ive seen how easy they are for kids to buy. Im proud to be here today to support Senator Klein, because instead of sitting on his hands like most politicians, Senator Klein is actually out there leading on this issue."

DMAA has faced challenges from numerous angles in the past couple of years, including questions of safety and regulatory status as a dietary supplement. In his proposed bill, Klein referenced all of this troubled recent history, including FDA's warning letters to DMAA manufacturers, U.S. military's ban of DMAA from base stores and links to consumers' deaths.

See the Klein-Conseco press conference here.

This ingredient has already been challenged by FDAwhich may have more to say once they finalize the new dietary ingredient (NDI) guidanceand several national governments around the world have already taken action to ban or restrict the sale of DMAA. New York has been competing with California for attempts to move forward on legislation for topics that federal legislators and regulators have been slow to tackle.

Klein's DMAA bill has been sent to the NY Senate Health Committee.