NJ Assembly Bill A5487 was introduced by Shanique Speight on September 14. Speight was co-sponsor on a similar unsuccessful bill that was introduced a couple of years ago. That older bill did pass the Assembly in New Jersey, but did not advance through the state’s senate.
The bill targets “certain diet pills and dietary supplements for weight loss or muscle building to persons under 18 years of age under certain circumstances.” It requires age verification using government-issued identification for all in-person and virtual sales and allows for fines of not more than $750.
The bill also targets specific ingredients, including creatine, green tea extract, raspberry ketone, garcinia cambogia, or green coffee bean extract.
Kyle Turk, vice president of government affairs at the Natural Products Association (NPA), said he does not anticipate any movement on the bill during the current legislative session but described A5487 as a “holding bill” that will carry over to the next year.
While Turk doesn’t anticipate a public hearing on the bill any time soon, he said NPA will be visiting the NJ state capitol in Trenton to reinforce with legislators that this is a non-starter for the dietary supplements industry.
STRIPED
The Rhode Island bill is the latest in a series of state proposals seeking to restrict youth access to certain dietary supplements, particularly those marketed for weight loss or muscle building.
Similar measures have been introduced in multiple states in recent years, most recently in states like Hawaii, Alaska, California, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, that would place age restrictions on certain supplement purchases and retail access.
Many of these bills reportedly originate from the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), which launched as a “public health incubator” based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Proponents of the restrictions cite a purported link between the use of such products and the worsening of eating disorders, even though a review of the scientific literature, funded by the Council for Responsible Nutrition, concluded that the “evidence to date does not support a causative role for dietary supplements in eating disorders.
“The use of dietary supplements for weight management in both male and female teens appears to be declining, and the objective of weight loss is not observed as a common motivation for the use of dietary supplements among this age group,” wrote Susan Hewlings, PhD, RD, the author of the review, which was published in the journal Nutrients.
Federal preemption efforts
In February, Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) introduced H.R. 7366 in the U.S. House of Representatives to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to clarify that the States cannot establish or continue any dietary supplement-related requirements that are different from the federal law.
The bill specifically aims to clarify federal preemption so that supplements meeting FDA requirements are not subjected to a patchwork of laws at the state level. To date, Langworthy’s home state of New York is the only place to pass a restrictive bill.
“When states override science-based FDA determination, you end up in a situation where the same product is treated as safe in one state, but suspect in another state, just by crossing a state line,” stated Langworthy during an April 29 hearing titled Healthier America: Legislative Proposals on the Regulation and Oversight of Food. “That’s regulation for regulation’s sake; it doesn’t make any sense for businesses or the people that they serve. That’s why I have introduced H.R. 7366, the Dietary Supplement Regulatory Uniformity Act, to reaffirm that we should have one clear, science-based national standard—not a patchwork of conflicting state rules.”
Despite vocal support from industry stakeholders, H.R. 7366 is unlikely to advance during this Congress, said Dr. Daniel Fabricant, NPA’s president and CEO.
“It’s really important to keep pushing back on these state bills,” said Dr. Fabricant. “We’ve seen efforts in twenty-plus states now. What is going to take for industry to stand up to these?”
