A little more than a year ago, the National Weekly Edition of THE WASHINGTON POST covered its entire front page with a color picture of a figure, easily recognizable as the "Angel of Death", reading the label on a jar in a health food store. The big white headline read "All Natural And Dangerous". The particular issue was dated March 27, 2000.

The admonition is, do not assume that because it is there, a substance is necessarily "healthy". In fact, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad used to warn us that whatever good nutrition a food possessed was completely lost, once it was dried out and pressed together in a tablet.

The headline read, "Herbals for Your Health?" and the sub-head read, "As the supplements industry booms, the sickness and death toll rises."

The POST staff writer, Guy Gugliotta, began, "Mounting evidence suggests that increasing numbers of Americans are falling seriously ill or even dying after taking dietary supplements that promise everything from extra energy to sounder sleep." He pointedly adds that these herbal supplements "are neither regulated by the federal government nor tested for their effects on the young."

He noted that "California investigators in 1998 found that nearly one-third of 260 imported Asian herbals were either spiked with drugs not listed on the label or contained lead, arsenic or mercury", and further states that "Health professionals across the country complain they cannot be sure how powerful a supplement is because the actual potency of the pill often doesn�t match the legend on the label."

Problems, the writer says, have sprung up all across the country. "Pittsburgh," he asserts, "documented 198 incidents involving herbal supplements" within a 15 month period, "with ginseng and St. Johns�s wort, an antidepressant, the most frequently mentioned substances. In Georgia, ephedra and melatonin, a sleep aid, led the list in 1999. In New Mexico, St. John�s wort ranked first in 1998, followed by a compound that eases teething pains in infants."

"Children," the writer asserts, "are increasingly becoming the victims of supplement abuse. Last year pediatrician Hillary Perr reported on children from wealthy California families who were malnourished from eating snack food spiked with supplements. In Long Island, a mother gave her 18-month-old baby a teaspoon of eucalyptus oil last year because a store clerk told her it was good for a fever. The child suffered permanent neurological damage and almost died."

The writer points out that this danger exists "because a 1994 federal law, fiercely pushed by the industry through an acquiescent Congress, exempts supplement companies from almost all federal regulation, including any requirement that they file reports when use of one of their products goes wrong. Unlike pharmaceuticals or food additives, supplements do not have to be pre-screened by the FDA." He quotes one consumer advocate as stating that many consumers become victims because they "believe that if a product wasn�t safe, the government wouldn�t allow it to be sold."