Introduction
1. The Consumer Council is pleased to provide views on the proposed Regulation of Health Claims in Hong Kong.
2. Unlike taking conventional medications which are prescribed by health care professionals, the choices of health food are mostly based on the claims shown on the packaging or advertisements. The public has, from time to time, lodged complaints to the Consumer Council expressing their doubts over the claims of health food products.
3. Furthermore, after the SARS outbreak, many consumers seek to strengthen their immune system by taking more health food. Some suppliers of such products, in order to capture consumers' attention, put up forceful advertisements with exaggerated health claims. It has been reported that the Department of Health issued over 100 warning letters to suppliers who claimed that their products can cure or prevent SARS.
Implementation Time of the Proposed Regulation
4. The Council supports the initiatives of the implementation of the regulation of health claims. The consultation document on the proposal notes at paragraph 5.5 that
"taking into consideration the shelf life of pre-packaged food in general and the lead-time needed by the manufacturers and traders to prepare for new labels, a grace period of at least 18 months is considered necessary."
5. While the Council understands that the enforcement against advertisements in newspapers, magazines, television and radio contravening the new requirements can take effect at an earlier date, it has reservation about the grace period of at least 18 months for new labels on the health food. As health products are flooding the market, consumers should be protected by better labelling regulations as soon as possible. The Council urges the process to be sped up.
Coverage of the Proposed Regulation
6. The consultation document on the proposal notes at paragraph 4.2 that:
".. to include in the UMAO a list of prohibited claims as a new schedule to address the misleading information and undesirable claims of orally consumed products The Director of Health would have the power to amend the new schedule and to extend its coverage to other products and services as and when necessary having regard to latest developments and for the protection of public health."
7. The Council feels that apart from orally consumed products, the Authority should consider covering other health products for external use, for example, massage machines and creams for increasing breast size.
8. The Council is of particular concern to the so-called health devices, targeting at elderly consumers. In January 2001, the Council published a report on some health products claimed to release far infra-red radiation or negative ions. In one of the complaint cases, the consumer spent $8,500 on a mattress which had been claimed to relieve pain. After using the mattress for some time, the consumer felt that it did not produce the same effect as claimed.
9. The Council believes that the regulation should, in the future, be expanded to cover health related services. An example of such services is the slimming programme. There are plenty of advertisements making exaggerated claims of reducing a certain amount of weight in a short time without doing physical exercises. According to the complaints lodged with the Council, some consumers may, in fact, be advised to take certain slimming pills of unknown ingredients as well as doubtful efficacy. This may delay consumers from seeking proper medical advice if they are really overweight.
Claims Should Be Included in the Prohibited List
10. The consultation document on the proposal notes at paragraph 4.6 that:
Claims on "Promotion of enlargement or firmness of the breast" is not to be included on the Prohibited List.
11. While it is believed that the public health risk caused by products with such a claim is small, consumers are still exposed to unnecessary risk of taking questionable ingredients, for example, daidzein.
Register / Listing of Suppliers
12. The Council would also like to offer the following suggestions to the proposed regulation.
13. A register / list could be set up to keep record of the suppliers and their products to enhance traceability. The register / list is not only a convenient tool of regulating the health product suppliers by the Authority, but also a guide for the public to find the suppliers if they have enquiries about the products. This could facilitate recall when necessary.
14. However, the Authority should prevent the possible misuse in advertisements by some suppliers of the state of being registered or listed to mislead consumers into believing that their products are approved or endorsed by the Authority. The Council notes that many suppliers make use of the documents of overseas authorities, such as the US Food and Drug Administration and Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, to promote their products by claiming that they are "approved" or "sanctioned" by them. In fact, the official documents may be acknowledgement of application or registration.
Recent Studies of the Consumer Council
15. The Council has been looking into the issue of exaggerating claims of health food products over the years. In the last 5 years, test/research projects have been undertaken on a wide range of health food products including squalene, ginkgo biloba, slimming pills, "detoxifying" pills, yunzhi pills, etc.
16. It is worthwhile to note that some of the points noted in the consultation document agree with the findings of the Consumer Council. For instance, the consultation document notes that some claims may delay the public from seeking proper medical advice and management:
16.1 In January 2000, the Consumer Council published the results of a comparative test of 20 samples of squalene products. Many of them possessed claims of preventing or curing cancer, liver diseases, high blood pressure, heart diseases, asthma, sexual dysfunction, etc.
16.2 In another study published by the Council in August 2000, some of the 32 samples of lingzhi health products bear claims of curing digestive tract cancers, chronic bronchitis, insomnia, etc.
16.3 Some of these claims could be regulated under the Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance (UMAO), but those which do not mention the prevention or treatment of specific diseases are outside the control of existing regulations. Notwithstanding this, consumers suffering from such diseases may risk their lives if they choose to rely solely on these health food products to cure the diseases.
17. Moreover, the paper also notes that some health food products possess exaggerated or misleading health-related claims.
17.1 In November 2001, the Consumer Council published the results of a comparative test on 35 samples of detoxifying/slimming products. One of them claimed "body slims in 5 days" and another claimed "detoxifies and slims rapidly in 7 days".
17.2 In May 2002, the Council published a report on a health product with claims about increasing the body height. According to the advertisement, people at the age of 26 to 30 were said to be able to increase their body height by 1.5 to 2 inches by taking this product, which is, according to medical experts, hardly achievable.
Conclusions and Recommendations
18. The Consumer Council supports the proposed regulation in principle.
19. The Council will be pleased to see the regulations be implemented as soon as possible.
20. The Council suggests that the proposed regulation be expanded to cover health products for external use and health services in due course.
21. The Council suggests including the Claims on "Regulation or alteration of structure of the genitourinary system" on the Prohibited List.
22. The Council suggests setting up a list or register to keep record of the suppliers and their products, but care must be exercised to prevent the possible misuse by some suppliers of using the state of being registered or listed.
