Hawaii Senate Bill 2106 seeks to prohibit the sale of dietary supplements and non-prescription diet pills for weight loss or muscle building to minors. The bill is sponsored by Democratic senators Mike Gabbard, Angus McKelvey, Karl Rhoads, Sharon Moriwaki and Joy San Buenaventura.
The bill stated that the focus is on products marketed to “modify, maintain, or reduce body weight, fat, appetite, overall metabolism, or the process by which nutrients are metabolized; or maintain or increase muscle or strength.”
The bill is similar to others introduced in other states over the past few years, which specifically call out ingredients such as creatine, green tea extract, raspberry ketone, Garcinia cambogia and coffee bean extract.
This marks the second such bill introduced this month after a bill in Alaska.
In response, Kyle Turk, vice president of government affairs at the Natural Products Association (NPA), told NutraIngredients: “Alaska and Hawaii lawmakers are proposing policies that restrict responsible consumers’ access to safe products and penalize compliant businesses. These proposals, including Senate Bill 2106 in Hawaii, represent regulatory overreach and a deeply misguided approach to public health. Dietary supplements are already regulated under federal law and overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“When unsafe products appear, the agency has clear authority to remove them from U.S. commerce and enforce against bad actors. If enacted into law, these bills would result in fewer choices, higher costs and greater confusion in the marketplace, undermining sound science and personal freedoms.”
STRIPED
This is the latest in a campaign of legislative efforts across the country to restrict access to certain categories of dietary supplements. Many of the efforts reportedly originate from the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), launched as a “public health incubator” based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Proponents of the restrictions cite a purported link between the use of such products and the worsening of eating disorders, even though a review of the scientific literature, funded by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), concluded that the “evidence to date does not support a causative role for dietary supplements in eating disorders.
“The use of dietary supplements for weight management in both male and female teens appears to be declining, and the objective of weight loss is not observed as a common motivation for the use of dietary supplements among this age group,” wrote Susan Hewlings, PhD, RD, the author of the review, which was published in the journal Nutrients.
CRN conveyed its opposition during a virtual legislative hearing on February 2, where Andrea Wong, PhD, SVP & Chief Science Officer at CRN, testifying that the bill is not rooted in sound science and risks misleading policymakers and the public.
“SB 2106 is not based on a scientific assessment of risk,” said Dr. Wong. “Peer-reviewed research does not support the notion that dietary supplements cause eating disorders, and restricting access to lawful, FDA-regulated products diverts attention from the real, complex drivers of these serious mental health conditions.”
