Letter to Dr. Vanderveen, Nov. 5, 1995
Nov-5-95
Dr. John Vanderveen
Director, Office of Plant & Dairy Foods & Beverages
Food & Drug Administration
200 C St., SW
Washington, DC 20204
Dear Dr. Vanderveen:
In response to your letter of Oct. 4, 1995, about 643 days
have elapsed since I sent my paper, "Calculations of American
Deaths Caused By Magnesium Deficiency..." to Dr. Troxell in Jan.
1994. Based on those calculations of about 590 deaths per day,
about 379,000 deaths from magnesium deficiency have occurred
since Jan. '94. Apparently $400,000 has been budgeted by the FDA,
NIH, and NAS for two small magnesium studies, which would be
barely $1 per death, and even those studies seem rather marginal
and not entirely to the point. What is needed is a large
intervention study, preferably using Mg in water, since Mg in
water is 30% more bio-available than Mg in food or pill, as
referenced in Petition 94P-0361/CP1. Mg-enriched beverages are
the only practical way of conveying uniform dosages of Mg to the
public, as intake of particular foods such as bread varies widely
from individual to individual, but intake of water-based
beverages is relatively uniform.
You have stated, "We recognize that dietary intake studies
indicate that many individuals are consuming significantly less
than the RDA for magnesium". Thirty years of research have
indicated that magnesium deficiency is a cause of heart disease.
You also state that "Scientific experts do not support (a public
health emergency) in this case." Who are these anonymous
scientific "experts"? They must not have read the literature.
Mg-deficiency obviously constitutes a Public Health
Emergency.
You further state, "The large majority of waters... contain
minerals of little nutritional significance". Dr. Neutra noted in
his literature review that "many of the cardio-protective effects
resulted from surprisingly low levels of water-borne magnesium."
So your statement is blatantly false.
You further state, "The agency does not normally view water as
a significant nutrient source." This is a self-fulfilling
statement, since American bottled waters average 2.7 mg/L
magnesium, and the rest of the world's bottled waters average 28
mg/L -- more than 10 times as much magnesium! (A list of the
mineral content of all the major bottled waters of the world is
attached, with references to source books.) If a consumer drinks
2 liters of water per day, containing 56 mg magnesium, and if
that 56 mg is 30% more bio-available than Mg in food, it is
equivalent to 73 mg of magnesium in food, which is hardly
insignificant.
How did this catastrophe happen? As near as I can tell, what
happened was that many American doctors were envious of the
popularity of "healing waters", and so convinced the FDA and its
predecessors to smear the reputation of water-borne minerals and
practitioners using water-borne minerals. Also, for over 100
years European communist intellectuals were known for drinking
mineral waters, so the anti-communists in America made "pure
water" a rallying cry to besmirch the mineral-drinking leftists.
In American fiction, the pure-water-drinking-right-winger is a
stereotype. Joe Mc Carthy wouldn't have been caught dead drinking
a mineral water.
Your statement that "The Agency does not normally view water
as a significant source of minerals" is thus a silly anachronism,
and totally out of line with the rest of the world. You have
absolutely no scientific evidence to support your position, so
change it before you kill millions more. Declare a National
Health Emergency.
Sincerely,
Paul Mason
cc: Dr. Terry Troxell
Dr. Floyd Horn
Dr. Claude Lenfant
Dr. Mildred Seelig
Dr. Raymond Neutra
Dr. Allison Yates
Dr. Atsutane Ohta
encl: Global list of mineral contents of bottled waters.
This page was first uploaded to The Magnesium Web Site on
November 16, 1995
http://www.mgwater.com/
Healthy Water
Association--USA