Thousands of Canadians may have suffered serious adverse reactions from using natural health products, says Health Canada, but the figures were not detailed until a correction to the “error” was made a month later.
“From the introduction of the NHPR [Natural Health Products Regulations] in 2004 until December 2021, Health Canada has received reports of over 8,000 adverse reactions in which NHP use had a suspected role, of which over 5,000 were serious,” the erratum notice said.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the figures follow a 2021 audit that found the federal health department failed to enforce regulations, seldom conducted random checks on wholesalers, and failed to ensure the health products were not contaminated.
‘Left Unchecked’
Over 91,000 natural health products were licensed by the Department of Health since 2004, the auditors noted, but the regulator did not conduct “routine inspections” on manufacturers.“The absence of routine inspections did not allow Health Canada to ensure that manufacturing sites were following good manufacturing practices,” the auditors wrote in the report.
“The department also did not monitor product label information to ensure that products were as described on the label or licensed for sale.”
To gain an understanding of the scale of the problem, the auditors said they examined a sample of 75 licensed products for sale on Canadian websites.
“We found that 88 [percent] of these products were advertised with misleading product information. Also, 56 [percent] of the products we examined were marketed with misleading label information.”
In addition, the report said Health Canada “left natural health products unchecked after they entered the market” and “was not always successful in responding to serious problems.”
“We found Health Canada did little to prevent poor information from being given to consumers about licensed natural health products.”