Dear One and All,

Recently some proposed Hong Kong legislation concerning health products has come to the attention of several of us in the healing fields. It is so such potentially threatening to our access to information and the future of the alternative health industry in Hong Kong that I feel compelled to write about it in these last comments of the year. For those of you who live in other cities, this information can be relevant to you for the future, as the movement that is behind the legislation in HK is afoot in Europe and N. America.
In a consultation document labelled "Regulation of Health Claims in Hong Kong" it has been proposed by the Department of Health that there is an ever-increasing number of products claiming beneficial health effects finding their way to the market. It states that in response to calls by the public and LEGCO for better control over irresponsible health claims, the advertising of orally consumed health food and supplement products will be prohibited through an addendum to an existing law that bans the advertisement of most pharmaceuticals with preventative or curative effects (for instance, it's already illegal to advertise antibiotics, blood pressure medicine or Viagra in the marketplace).
Antibiotics and other medicines cannot be advertised in Hong Kong. However, they don't need to be because medical doctors, who have the right to promote whatever they want to their patients, can prescribe them. Under this proposed legislation it will be illegal to even talk about the beneficial effects of say, EFA (Essential Fatty Acids) or Evening Primrose Oil, which come in supplemental form and have whole bodies of scientific research proving their efficacy behind them. Actually, the way the document is currently worded, it looks as though Cheerios won't be able to say that oats are good for lowering cholesterol and milk companies won't be able to say that Vit. D and Calcium are good for building strong bones.
The language of the proposal is all couched in terms of 'advertising.' But this means that we or other shops in HK who sell high quality vitamins and supplements will not be legally able to put anything on our shelves that is labelled in such a way that describes what the products are good for. No informative notices can be emailed or placed on a HK website, nor even public talks allowed where a product is represented. Our staffs won't be permitted to explain to you that garlic capsules are suitable for heart disease because that is construed to be prohibited advertising.
We all know that a lot of rubbish is coming onto the market and I am not opposed to taking a reasonable approach to regulation of supplements and vitamins like that which exists in the Australia, US and the UK, but this proposal is so all-encompassing that it will effectively destroy the alternative health community in HK, (the Chinese Medicine one is being similarly restricted) leaving the medical community to give us what they like.

Please have a look for yourselves on the government website: http://www.info.gov.hk/dh/useful/healthclaimscondoc_e.htm

The document first appears in Chinese, but for English, scroll down to page 27. Then, please take a stand for your right to choose your own health and healing alternatives. Write, e-mail...protest positively. Together we can make a difference.
In this last month of the year, we'll have Liz MacDonald and Jani King with us until the 6th. Liz is a clairvoyant who has the rare gift of automatic writing and Jani is the internationally known Channel of Light Being P'taah. Mayan Shamanic Healer, Peace Mother, will also be with us for the first two weeks sharing her ancient knowledge and boundless joy. Ascended Master Channel Susan Balfré will then arrive to finish off The New Age Shop's Year with light and inner wisdom.
I apologise for the political harangue, urge you to constructively protest and wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons. OH, AND COME IN FOR HOLIDAY GIFTS!

Peace and Happy New Year,
Anne Loseff

For more information about the New Age Shop please go to http://www.newageshop.com.hk