North American Health Claim Surf Day targets 1200 web sites

[Guest guest]

Second annual North American Health Claim Surf Day targets 1200 web

sites

© by Barry Chowka

As Natural HealthLine reported on Nov. 5, 1997, the Federal Trade

Commission

(FTC), the agency that enforces a variety of federal antitrust and

consumer

protection laws and " works to eliminate acts or practices that are

unfair or

deceptive, " began actively monitoring the Internet as a repository of

" potentially false or deceptive advertising claims concerning

treatments or

cures for heart disease, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, arthritis, and

multiple sclerosis. "

To that end, the FTC joined with public health and consumer protection

and

information agencies from the United States, Canada, and Mexico to

" surf the

Internet. "

" In just a few hours during the [1997] North American Health Claim

Surf Day, "

according to a November 5, 1997 FTC news release, " 400 World Wide Web

sites

and numerous Usenet newsgroups that contain promotions for products or

services purporting to help cure, treat or prevent these six diseases "

were

identified. " Participants with the FTC in this Surf Day included other

federal

agencies, 18 state Attorney General's offices, numerous non-profit

health

organizations, and national health and consumer protection and

information

agencies from the United States, Canada and Mexico. " The FTC said that

it

sent hundreds of Web sites and newsgroups e-mail messages pointing out

that

advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims. The FTC

pledged to

follow-up by revisiting the targeted sites " in the coming weeks to

determine if

changes have been made. "

The Internet has grown exponentially during the past year and so have

the

results of the FTC's second annual North American Health Claim Surf

Day. This

year, the surfers had expanded to include the staff of 80 regulatory

and health

agencies in 25 countries. And the number of " problematic " Web sites

increased

to over 1200.

What does the FTC mean by " problematic? "

" We don't mean to say we've made the determination that they've [Web

sites]

broken the law,'' Cleland, Assistant Director of the FTC,

commented.

" These are sites that are making 'cure' claims for serious diseases,

which...

would be questionable.'' Cleland explained that 90 percent of the

questionable

Web sites were promoting dietary supplements, and the rest were

promoting

devices and clinics.

" Deceptive claims about serious diseases are worse than electronic

snake oil, "

said Jodie Bernstein, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer

Protection.

" This hokum can actually hurt people. Billions of dollars are wasted

on

unproven, deceptively marketed 'miracle cures.' And bogus remedies

that cause

consumers to forgo or delay proven treatment can harm consumers'

health. "

" More and more people are turning to the Internet to find treatments

for serious,

life threatening diseases, " added Dykstra, Deputy Associate

Commissioner

for Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an

agency

that works closely with the FTC. " It is a powerful medium that can

provide

consumers easy access to information that can help them manage their

health.

It also provides promoters of fraudulent health products and

treatments easy

access to consumers from all over the world. Health fraud not only

waste

consumers' money, but can also cause death or injury. "

In its Surf Days, the FTC also works closely with " not for profit "

organizations it

approves of, like the American Cancer Society and the Arthritis

Foundation.

The latter group contributed to the FTC's news release about the 1998

Surf Day:

" An estimated $10 billion is spent yearly on unproven arthritis

remedies, making

people with arthritis prime targets for unproven health claims,

according to the

Arthritis Foundation. "

There may be considerable hyperbole in this claim, however: The

estimate by

Eisenberg et al in the widely quoted article in the Nov. 11, 1998

Journal of

the American Medical Association ( " Trends in Alternative Medicine Use

in the

United States, 1990-1997 " ), reported on in Natural HealthLine, is that

" the total

[annual] out-of-pocket expenditures for alternative medicine are

conservatively

estimated to be $27.0 billion, " with approximately $15 billion of that

going for

" remedies " ( " herbal herapies, megavitamins, diet products, and

alternative

therapy-specific books, classes, and equipment " ). If fully two-thirds

of that

amount is taken up by " unproven arthritis remedies, " as the FTC and

Arthritis

Foundation suggest, that would indeed by surprising.

The actual numbers notwithstanding, the FTC commented that, after the

agency and its partners identified the " problematic " Web sites this

fall, they

" sent each site a warning, and notified them that advertisers must

have

scientific evidence before they can claim that their product offers a

particular

health benefit. " " We will continue to work with them and attempt to

educate the

industry [that] you have to have pretty rigorous scientific evidence

before you

make [a] claim,'' FTC Assistant Director Cleland said. " We plan to

revisit at least

some of these sites, to determine whether a law enforcement action''

would be

warranted, he added. If the sites in question do not change, Cleland

said, the

FTC might seek court injunctions.

Presumably, FTC enforcement actions would affect only Web sites and/or

products and services in the United States -- for the U.S. government

a

potentially " problematic " scenario given the transnational nature of

the

Internet.