What is the future for your right to choose to buy a wide range of safe herbal medicines?

I have to start this article by saying that I don't actually know the answer to this question..! What I do know is that there is grave risk to your right to choose from a wide range of safe, quality-assured herbal medicines - either buying from a shop or from a qualified herbalist.

Do you think herbal medicine should be regulated? It seems that much of the UK population may think so - a 2009 Ipsos MORI survey found that 77% of adults agree that it is important that herbal medicines are regulated. The 26% of the UK population that have used a herbal medicine in the last two years probably expect that the herbal medicines they buy should be quality-assured and safe to use.

As well as buying herbal medicines to treat yourself for minor ailments - there are times when it is a good idea to consult with a professionally qualified herbalist. One would hope that it would be easy to find a qualified herbalist who is trained to a high standard and dispenses safe herbal medicines. But no, currently there is no regulation, anybody can set up shop and call themselves a herbalist - an example of how this can go horribly wrong you may have heard about in the news recently...

The Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey recently heard how civil servant Patricia Booth suffered cancer and her kidneys were "destroyed" after taking pills alleged to have been provided by a Chinese herbal medicine shop. The pills contained a banned ingredient called Aristolochia fangchi that is toxic to the kidneys. Mrs Booth remains seriously ill, awaiting a kidney transplant.

In June 2008, herbalist Michael McIntyre and scientist Professor Michael Pittilo met with the then Health Minister Ben Bradshaw to present him with a Department of Health steering group report firmly supporting statutory regulation of herbalists, and to advise him it must go ahead as swiftly as possible in the interest of patient safety, with the specific warning that contamination of Chinese herbal medicines with Aristolochia could cause of injury or deaths in the UK - as it already had in Belgium. It seems the warning of an inevitable tragedy has most unfortunately come true! Without statutory regulation the public has no protection from untrained, bogus practitioners and dodgy herbal products.

Statutory regulation has been under consideration for a decade since the call in 2000 from the House of Lords' Select Committee on Science and Technology for the statutory regulation of practitioners of herbal medicine and acupuncture. The Government itself backed statutory regulation of this sector in 2001, and as recently as 2006 the Department of Health website recorded that "The Government is committed to the statutory regulation of herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners".

Over the past eight years the Department has initiated 3 working groups to look at implementing this policy, all of which strongly supported the aim of statutory regulation of this sector. In 2005, the Department ran a public consultation on the statutory regulation of herbal medicine & acupuncture reporting a 98% response in favour. As a consequence they published a timetable for the statutory regulation, with a commitment to implement it, to be published later that year. This timetable has not been adhered to. The Government says it will make a decision on this matter but continues to dilly-dally.

We are still not entirely sure why, after the ten years' of work and money spent, and the explicit warnings of the potential for a real tragedy, this Government decided not to follow through on their commitment to statutory regulation. How many more people need to take unnecessary risks with their health from not knowing how to find a safe herbalist before the Government will take action?

The only way to be sure that you will still be able to choose from a wide variety of herbal medicines is for statutory regulation of herbalists to be passed alongside the new laws coming into force in April 2011 regulating the quality of herbal medicines you can buy in shops.

If you are concerned by this issue then please do contact your local politicians or contact me with any questions.

Roberta Hutchins BSc (Hons) Medical Herbalist & Reflexologist at Still Point House 07747 030629 www.herbalpractice.co.uk