VITAMIN B6 AND THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Early day motion 1303, tabled 11 May 1998 by David Tredinnick (Conservative). Signed by 102 members.

That this House notes the Government's intention to increase public confidence in food safety policy; endorses the view that such policy should be based on sound science; welcomes recent statements by Ministers about consumers being able to make informed choices on the basis of accurate information; welcomes the decision of the Minister for Food Safety to undertake a wide-ranging consultation exercise in relation to his proposed new restrictions on the retail sale of vitamin B6, and his commitment to consider any new scientific evidence; notes the publication on 7th April by the Institute of Medicine of the United States National Academy of Sciences of a major new scientific report which includes the most authoritative evaluation of the safety of vitamin B6 currently in existence; notes the conclusions of that Report and the lowest intake level at which adverse effects have been identified for vitamin B6 is 500 mg per day, that the highest intake of vitamin B6 at which no adverse effects have been observed is 200 mg per day, that building in a restrictive safety factor, it set a tolerable upper intake level of 100 mg per day, and that an earlier report by Dr Dalton, relied heavily upon by the United Kingdom Committee on Toxicity, is so flawed as to be unusable; and urges the Minister to accept these authoritive findings and review his proposals accordingly.

Signatures by party: Labour 41, Conservative 27, Liberal Democrat 22, UUP 5, Plaid Cymru 3, Labour/Co-operative 2, Scottish National Party 2.