Blumenthal, Durbin Statement on New Study Identifying Dietary Supplement Use Causes More Than 20,000 E.R. Visits Every Year

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) issued the following statement today on a new study finding that dietary supplement use results in more than 20,000 emergency room visits every year:

“This study confirms that not enough is being done to protect consumers—especially young adults—from dangerous dietary supplements. Despite industry’s assertions that side effects from dietary supplements are extremely rare, we now know that dietary supplements have in fact resulted in tens of thousands of severe injuries and hospitalizations each year. The Dietary Supplement Labeling Act, which we introduced in the last session of Congress, would have required dietary supplement to carry labels warning consumers of major side effects and helped prevent many of the hospitalizations this study documents. This bill, which we plan to reintroduce, is desperately needed to improve the currently inadequate oversight of dietary supplements.”

###