Press Release, August 7, 1997
FDA Suit for 3 Million Deaths
A Federal Suit was filed against the FDA August 5 for causing
3 million deaths--the cause was magnesium (Mg) deficiency,
particularly magnesium-deficient water.
For 77 years the FDA forbade any health claims for mineral
water, and deliberately destroyed the American mineral water
industry. Now it turns out that magnesium in water could have
prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths per annum, equaling 3
million lives just in the last 20 years. The National Academy of
Sciences estimated in 1977 that up to 150,000 lives per annum
could be saved by drinking hard water. More recent research
indicates that figure was low.
Paul Mason, president of the Healthy Water Association of
water bottlers, filed suit against the FDA and the US Department
of Health after collecting dozens of research studies from
universities all over the world, all indicating that magnesium in
hard water is correlated with longer life and less heart disease.
Clinical studies, intervention studies, and epidemiological
studies all pointed toward the same conclusion. "So why," Mason
asks, "didn't the FDA recant its harassment of mineral water
years ago?" The answer appears to be that everyone was too
embarrassed to admit causing millions of deaths, and American
business had a financial stake in not changing things.
The bottled water industry had become used to bottling lowTDS
waters that were nearly mineral-free. American bottled waters
average less than 3 mg/L magnesium, compared with 28 mg/L in the
rest of the world. Ninety mg/L may be optimal. The beer industry
was bragging of the "pure" water it used, and soft-drink makers
did not want to reformulate their products, and the medical
profession was embarrassed about its monumental blunder. So no
one wanted to acknowledge the scientific truth, and the magnesium
issue remained virtually hidden from the public for 20
years--known only to a handful of scientists and magnesium
researchers.
Now that has changed, as the researchers have become indignant
at the continuing deaths, and the collection of Mg studies has
become overwhelming. A few bottlers in California, having Mg-rich
springs, have formed the Healthy Water Association to promote
Mg-rich water and force the FDA and AMA to admit the truth about
Mg. After the FDA ignored his Petitions, the Association's
president filed suit against the FDA in Federal Court, figuring
that a Court of Law would give scientists a chance to challenge
the FDA and prove Mg's benefits. Mason has to be certain of his
facts to legally challenge such a powerful agency, but Mason's
not worried, stating, "I know the scientists are right and the
bureaucrats are wrong, so I don't perceive any risk to me in
telling the truth about Mg. It can save about one life every 2.5
minutes in the U.S. and that's worth doing."
The suit against the FDA can be viewed on the WEB at http://www.mgwater.com/fdabig.shtml
300 pages of medical journal reprints about Mg can be viewed
at http://www.mgwater.com/
This page was first uploaded to The Magnesium Web Site on
August 8, 1997
http://www.mgwater.com/
Healthy Water
Association--USA