The 1962 Amendments to the Food & Drug Act were intended to prevent drug disasters like the European drug, thalidomide, which caused babies to be born with missing limbs. However, these regulations made it virtually impossible for manufacturers to tell the American public about the preventative effects of vitamins and minerals. In the 1980s, we knew that the B vitamin, folic acid, could almost completely eliminate certain types of serious birth defects.
The FDA told folic acid manufacturers they would be prosecuted if they talked about these studies or if they pointed out that the Center for Disease Control, another government body, was recommending that young women take folic acid as a preventative. Consequently, at least 10,000 babies were born needlessly deformed, while many others were aborted. The Amendments caused an ‘American thalidomide’, the very problem they were intended to prevent, demonstrating that bad laws can have side effects just as deadly as bad drugs.
This is an excerpt from my book, “Death by Regulation”. Order on Amazon at: amzn.to/2qGrSwv (now available in paperback AND Kindle!)
