New regulations aren't necessary

To the editor:

As an avid believer in the benefits of dietary supplements, I am dismayed by the recent bad press regarding the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act of 1994 and its purported ineffectiveness in monitoring the quality and safety of supplements.

The Dietary Supplement Safety Act, which was recently introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin to replace the DSHEA, would afford no more consumer protection than the current law. It would, however, provide the Food and Drug Administration with new and discretionary enforcement powers that would significantly undermine many of the freedoms that American consumers of dietary products hold dear.

Rather than passing this new act, which would unnecessarily expand the authority of the FDA, Congress should instead investigate and oversee ways in which the agency can make full use of it current and more-than-adequate authority granted by the DSHEA.

Don't let this legislation prevent me from buying the health supplements I need.

DEBBIE KLIPFEL

Jackson