The supplement industry has been a frequent punching bag for athletes blaming tainted nutritionals for their performance-enhancing drug violations, but the Council for Responsible Nutrition is countering accusations by the head of the U.S. group that tests Olympic athletes.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart relied on suspect information to assail the quality of the industry's products, CRN President and CEO Steve Mister says in a July 10 ¹ letter to Tygart.

CRN's comments to the USADA chief follow the trade group's assertion of "fear-mongering" when the Center for Science in the Public Interest said Bayer's selenium-containing multivitamins pose a health risk because study results associate intake of the ingredient with increased risk of developing diabetes and with increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer (² Also see "CSPI Calls On FDA To Make Example Of Bayer One A Day Selenium Claims" - Pink Sheet, 6 July, 2009.).

Tygart referred to information from a study by a U.K. firm, Horseracing Forensic Laboratory, when he presented on athletes' problems with nutritional products during a June conference of state attorneys general in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Data in HFL's study, Mister writes, do not substantiate the results, including that as much as 25 percent of U.S.-produced supplement products contain steroids and 11 percent contain stimulants. (Mister made similar statements in letters to the state officials who attended the meeting.)

Further, the study examined only 52 products from the more than 30,000 on the market, and HFL "intentionally selected" only products from companies "not likely to have adequate quality assurance programs," according to the letter.

Conversely, "the responsible, mainstream dietary supplement industry cares deeply about the safety, quality and benefit of its products," Mister said.

The CRN head also pointed out HFL is a for-profit business "with a direct interest in demonstrating that companies are in need of its testing services."

CRN and other supplement industry stakeholders have made similar criticism of ConsumerLab.com's business. ConsumerLab.com filed a lawsuit alleging defamation and other complaints against CRN but withdrew the suit after all but one of the charges were dismissed (³ Also see "ConsumerLab And Industry Trade Words Over GMP Testing Initiative" - Pink Sheet, 23 July, 2007.).

"Readily Available" On Store Shelves

According to a copy of a ⁴ report Tygart distributed at the Colorado conference, he described "the current health problem facing American athletes and other consumers" in trusting nutritional supplement manufacturers to provide products not adulterated with steroids or other banned substances.

Like other industry critics, Tygart says the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act imposes "lax regulation," primarily by not requiring pre-market approval of products and giving FDA limited enforcement authority.

He also points out that anabolic steroid control laws enacted in 1990 and 2004 have done little to prevent steroid-containing products from reaching the consumer market.

Tygart's report says, "USADA became involved in this issue because Olympic athletes were testing positive for prohibited substances ... found in supplements that were readily available on the shelves of 'nutrition' stores."

However, athletes' claims that products they purchased over the counter are adulterated have often not withstood scrutiny.

Supplement manufacturer AdvoCare filed suit this year accusing world champion swimmer Jessica Hardy of defamation and harming its business when she said two of the firm's supplements were tainted with a prohibited substance. Hardy lost a spot on the U.S. Olympic team after she tested positive for a drug on the International Olympic Committee's banned substance list.

Baseball star Alex Rodriguez initially blamed contaminated supplements following a report that he had tested positive for steroids, but later said he used a substance obtained in the Dominican Republic without a prescription but not available in the U.S. (⁵ Also see "AdvoCare’s Suit Aims At Athletes Falsely Blaming Supplements For Failed Tests" - Pink Sheet, 23 February, 2009.).

Mister says a European group reported more than 90 percent of the 11,000 athletes competing at the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008 used supplements, but "there were relatively few allegations" of tainted products.

-- Malcolm Spicer (m.spicer@elsevier.com)

CRN Stands Up Against U.S. Sports Official's Criticism Of Supplement Quality

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