National Health Federation

The National Health Federation (NHF) is a lobbying group which promotes alternative medicine.[1] The NHF is based in California and describes its mission as protecting individuals' rights to use dietary supplements and alternative therapies without government restriction. The NHF also opposes mainstream public-health measures such as water fluoridation and compulsory childhood vaccines.

National Health Federation
FormationJanuary 1955
TypeHealth-freedom organization
WebsiteTheNHF.com

The NHF was founded by Fred J. Hart in 1955, after he was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to cease marketing radionics devices.[2] Mainstream medical organizations have criticized the NHF for promoting dubious alternative cancer treatments and health claims; the American Cancer Society recommends that cancer patients avoid products promoted by the NHF,[2] while Quackwatch describes the NHF as "antagonistic to accepted scientific methods as well as to current consumer-protection law."[3]

History and activities

The National Health Federation was founded in 1955 by Fred J. Hart, and is the world's oldest health freedom organization. He promoted radionics devices. Hart founded the NHF to ensure free expression of health advances and alternatives as well as disagreeing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration compelling his company to cease marketing FDA non-authorized devices for medical treatment. Over the years, the NHF has promoted a range of alternative cancer therapies, including laetrile.[2] According to its website, the NHF fought and won the battle for mandatory inspection of poultry, coordinated a drive to help chiropractors become legally licensed in the United States, waged a campaign against water fluoridation, and advocated legislative recognition of acupuncture in the United States.[4] The Federation has collaborated with European consumer organizations and political parties in a campaign demanding that the European Union (EU) accept the outcome of a referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty.[5]

In the 1990s, the Federation lobbied on behalf of consumers and manufacturers to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which put into place government quality controls of dietary supplements, health claims, good manufacturing practices and oversight by the Food and Drug Administration. The organization has stated vaccines are questionable and promoted claims that under certain conditions vaccines were dangerous, fought malathion spraying as an environmental toxin, and opposed the use of Class 5 poison fluorosilsilic acid in water fluoridation.[6] The organization publishes a quarterly newsletter, Health Freedom News. It has a worldwide membership in 22 countries, and the only consumer health-freedom organization in the world to enjoy official observer status (able to speak out for health freedom) at meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the highest international body on food standards.

Scott Tips is the current president for the National Health Federation. He is a California-licensed attorney and former Managing Editor of the California Law Review. He has published extensively in Trade Magazines, updating readers on issues regarding consumer health and safety. He is the main representative at the CODEX meetings held throughout the year at different venues around the world.

Reception

The NHF is a non-profit organization promoting freedom of choice in the alternative medical community. The Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine by J.C. Segen defines the NHF as a "fringe medicine organization that exerts political pressure to secure 'health freedom' and 'freedom of medical choice' on behalf of alternative medicine practitioners, their families, and 'health food' consumers."[7]

The American Cancer Society, noting that the NHF is "not a medical or scientific body," recommended that "persons with cancer avoid the therapies and products promoted by the National Health Federation for the treatment of cancer."[2] Quackwatch calls NHF, based on Stephen Barrett, "an alliance of promoters and followers who engage in lobbying campaigns... and uses the words 'alternative,' and 'freedom' to suit its own purposes," adding that "NHF is antagonistic to accepted scientific methods as well as to current consumer-protection law."[3]

The NHF has been at the forefront internationally in protecting consumers' rights and nutrition. Most recently in Ottawa, Canada, they helped to successfully defeat organic label deception to have GMO foods labeled as "biofortification". They have a tireless record of attendance to speak out and aid accuracy of labeling, veterinary drug issues, herbecides, pesticides and other toxic chemical standards. They also maintain close attention to the language of Representatives which want to loosen standards of safety of toxic products by introducing new terminology of standards and new terms of consensus.

References
  1. Schneirov, Matthew David; Jonathan David Geczik (2003). A Diagnosis for Our Times: Alternative Health, from Lifeworld to Politics. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p. 129. ISBN 9780791457313.
  2. "Unproven methods of cancer management. National Health Federation". CA Cancer J Clin. 41 (1): 61–4. 1991. doi:10.3322/canjclin.41.1.61. PMID 1898638.
  3. Barrett, Stephen (1993). "Be Wary of the National Health Federation". Quackwatch. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
  4. "About us". National Health Federation.
  5. Diane M. Miller (2008). "Legal Matters: Collaboration in the Health Freedom Movement: A Source of Power and Healing". Alternative and Complementary Therapies. 14 (6): 315–320. doi:10.1089/act.2008.14610. PMID 18380609.
  6. Easley MW (1985). "The new antifluoridationists: who are they and how do they operate?". J Public Health Dent. 45 (3): 133–41. doi:10.1111/j.1752-7325.1985.tb01127.x. PMID 3861861. Archived from the original on 2013-01-05.
  7. "National Health Federation - definition". McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. 2002. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
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