Milk Of Magnesia Banned By The Eu

[chrisgel]

It seems the EU is determined to micro manage every aspect of our lives. They know better than the millions of people who have used this product for years with no ill effect.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10151660/EU-rules-force-mothers-Milk-of-Magnesia-off-the-shelves.html

[Zeuhl]

This is not an issue

Milk of Magnesia will be back soon

Compliant on sulphate levels and with no discernible difference to the product or its effectiveness

Overall, governing sulphate levels in the stuff we are sold is a good thing

[chrisgel]

I'm not saying it's an issue and I'm aware that the formula will be adjusted etc.
I'm commenting on the insignificance of the problem.
Are there not more important things the EU should be spending our money on?

[Zeuhl]

Like what?

Other than keeping toxic substances out of our food and medicines :-)

[FredPuli43]

So you want to blame the EU for the discovery that certain levels of a chemical are undesirable or potentially risky to consumers and then doing something about it?

[chrisgel]

My my! There you are again. It's a perfectly legitimate question. Not one recorded death by Milk of Magnesia. Yet it's a fitting subject to be investigated and proscribed by the highly expensive and hugely inefficient EU.
There are no higher priority problems for them to investigate are there?
Perhaps they'd like to tell us what time to go to bed at night in order to save energy.

[Zeuhl]

chris

The EU have not 'targeted' Milk of Magnesia or spent time or money investigating

Some time ago they laid down a sulphate limit for all products; all very sensible, reasonable and efficiently done

It is GSK who have now recognised they are not complying

/a GSK spokesman said: “Recent testing showed that one of the ingredients in the product was not compliant with the European Pharmacopaeia sulphate limit test of 0.5 per cent. /

It's all very simple really and has no significance from a governance point of view other than manufacturers have to be more careful what they put in the stuff they sell us

[chrisgel]

Thanks Zeuhl.

[FredPuli43]

Do you accept that this level is appropriate or not? There were plenty of long established remedies whose formulae had to be changed or the product banned by our government's intervention; Dr Collis Browne's remedy comes to mind. Your objection is to the EU, not the science, isn't it? You'd make a great American; they are forever objecting that their individual state should be making rules which the federal government , for all 50, makes binding on every one.

[Jemisa]

Gawd! Milk of Magnesia... a blast from the past. I remember years ago as a pharmacy assistant in 'Timothy Whites & Taylors' we sold that in a dark blue bottle... it was very popular, before the days of 'Gavescon' ahhh!!
memories, mmmm!!

jem.

[chrisgel]

Fred - Go and cross examine someone who cares what you think. If a little harmless post from a newspaper article is going to get you into "judge" mode then all I can say is keep taking the tablets.

[Zeuhl]

what about the lovely Kaolin and Morphine we used to be able to get?

Most of the student houses I remember had a bottle on the mantelpiece

with the morphine separating out - lovely!

[jim360]

There are legitimate reasons to dislike the EU. This is not one of them.

[FredPuli43]

Yes, chris, but what's the answer to my question? Are you criticising the science or the EU?

[LazyGun]

For starters, the papers have it wrong- not unusual.

It is not the EU that has "implemented a ban". It is the UK MHRA, following guidelines set down by the European Pharmacopoeia, an organisation separate from the EU.

The reason they wish to enforce a ban of not more than 0.5% sulphate in milk of magnesium products is if you get sulphate levels much higher than this, it is possible that magnesium sulphate can form. Magnesium Sulphate can potentially serious central nervous system complications, ranging from depression through to reduced respiration. These are not trivial risks.

The manufacturer, GSK, has voluntarily agreed to stop manufacturing the product whilst doing 2 things; applying for an exemption based upon EP papers and 30 years of trading experience and data, to allow up to a 1% upper limit in sulphates; and exploring alternative manfacturing processes to allow for lower sulphate levels in the product, but this second option does not seem possible.

The EP and the UK MHRA have agreed to this waiver for milk of magnesia.

Bit of a non-story, all in all, fuelled by anti- EU sentiment and knee-jerk over-reaction to some slanted media stories....

http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/cloudy-coverage-on-milk-of-magnesia/

I would be interested in any other examples you have where the EU is determined to micro-manage our lives?

[Bazile]

chrisgel - admit it , you didn't examine the story properley , did you ?

You saw the lettes EU , and that was enough to send you into a ' mild ' rage

[chrisgel]

I'm not criticising anything. I posted a comment accompanied by a newspaper article in order to provoke some discussion. That's what people on here usually do.
As far as I know, the only judge of what's allowed on AB is the Ed.

[chrisgel]

Bazile - Yes you are totally correct in your statement. If you'd like to confer with Fred, Zeuhl and LG, perhaps you can come up with a suitable punishment for my crimes.

[jim360]

The only appropriate "punishment" is to acknowledge that you may have leaped before you looked. This seems not unreasonable, as that is precisely what you have done.

[chrisgel]

Oh, I did try to moderate myself a little bit and decided not to quote the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2352139/Milk-Magnesia-disappears-British-shelves-ingredients-fall-foul-EU-meddlers.html