Help Us Keep Harmful Weight-Loss and Muscle-Building Supplements Out of Kids' Hands.

Currently children can walk into their corner drug store and purchase weight-loss and muscle-building supplements. These type of dietary supplements are regulated under the controversial Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. These supplements do NOT need to be proven safe by the FDA before they are stocked on market shelves. Instead, the FDA only finds out they are harmful when people are hurt by these products.

The evidence of harm caused by ineffectively-regulated diet supplements is overwhelming. From reports generated by the Center for Disease Control, it is estimated that 23,000 Americans are sent to emergency rooms every year due to dietary supplements, with a quarter of those visits directly linked to the weight-loss supplements. Weight-loss and muscle-building supplements are directly linked to stroke, testicular cancer, liver damage, and death. Since 2007, there have been 965 tainted diet supplements that have been reported to the FDA's Tainted Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements list.

For children aged 5-19 years, weight-loss supplements make up the largest type of supplement responsible for their emergency room visit. A 2019 study by a Harvard team using the FDA’s Tainted Products List, found that youth using weight-loss or muscle-building supplements were nearly three times more likely to experience severe medical harm, including hospitalization, disability, and death.

The Out of Kids Hands Bill makes it illegal to sell supplements for weight loss and muscle building to children under 18.

Rep. Kay Khan first introduced An Act Protecting Children From Harmful Diet Pills and Muscle-Building Supplements H.1942 in 2015. Rep. Robyn Gabel of Illinois introduced Illinois HB3948, the Over the Counter Diet Pill Act in 2019. City Councilor Mark Levine in New York City filed Int. No. 1485, A local law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to restricting the sale of senna- and saffron-based products.

Join the movement to keep harmful dietary supplements Out of Kids' Hands by signing this petition to urge legislators to vote YES on the Out of Kids' Hands Bills.

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