Supplements, Safety, and Poison Information
Each year the U.S. National Poison Data System keeps records of all the injuries and fatalities that result from consumer products and foods. They do this so that they can recall or ban dangerous products and substances, as well as creating consumer reports to help people make safe decisions and keep an eye on potentially harmful products.
The NPDS has reports available to the public for free here.
In the year of 2010, not one single person died as a result of supplements they were taking. This is big news, considering people routinely die due to eating contaminated foods, and it wasn’t too long ago that a case came into the public scope about a girl who ended up brain damaged as a result of eating contaminated chicken.
Even when you take into account that the supplements themselves are safe, it is all too common for someone with a little more ego than common sense to disregard the dosing instructions and refuse to follow proper use guidelines. With plenty of people daily mixing supplements with pharmaceuticals and “boosting” their dosage, it says a lot about supplements that they aren’t causing any notable amount of harm.
It is long past time that we hold the rest of the corporations to the same high standard as vitamin manufacturers and demand safer products!
