Sign New Online Petition To Mandate Gluten-Free Labeling On All Pharmaceutical Products

[Leah's Mom]

Hi everybody! I was hoping you'd take a second to go to the link below and sign the online petition I created to mandate pharmaceutical companies to label their products as "gluten-free" or "containing gluten". For those of you who are new to the world of Celiac Disease, believe it or not, there are no current laws regulating this labeling on medications. The doctors, nurses and pharmacists we dealt with this week for Leah's minor surgery/anesthesia could not determine whether or not the drugs they were giving her were gluten-free. They just "guessed" they were (we found out later). This whole week she has been suffering from pretty severe Celiac symptoms. A week of frustrating phone calls and e-mails to the surgicenter we used, Walgreens Corporate, and medicine manufacturers have prompted me to start this petition. I'm hoping to get thousands of signatures and will send it to the FDA. Considering 1 in 133 people have this allergy, it's amazing to me that there is currently no legislation mandating drug labeling already. (Especially considering so many food companies are voluntarily doing it). Leave it to a ticked-off parent to get something rolling. Mom claws don't retract easily.

Thanks and feel free to forward this to as many people as you can think of:

Open Original Shared Link

Much Appreciation,

Marcie Taylor

[jackay]

Come on everyone! I was only #16 signing this.

[kareng]

I just signed! I also noted that many companies do not know if there is gluten in the product. Target does not know on the target brand OTC medications. I have called the number on the box and of different items. I get the same response that they "don't have that information". If I want, they can call the manufacturor and get back to me. Its nuts!

[ravenwoodglass]

Up to 54 now. Let others know about this as it is very important.

[sa1937]

I signed it last night when it was only up to 24. I am going to send it to my daughter (newly diagnosed) and I know she has no time to read this forum as she's in grad school and up to her ears in homework. Hopefully lots of people sign and I do wish the FDA would get their act together to come up with official labeling for food products. Wasn't that due in 2008?

[cassP]

#73

[txplowgirl]

I'm #74, you'd think with over 30,000 people on this site we'd have a lot more signatures than this. Kinda disapointing.

[psawyer]

I'm #74, you'd think with over 30,000 people on this site we'd have a lot more signatures than this. Kinda disappointing.

I am in Canada, so I doubt that my signing would mean anything (no vote-no clout).

The board has been running almost seven years. Over that time, people have come seeking help, and after having found that help, have moved on. I began reading in July of 2004, and signed up in December. In my time, I have seen that pattern so many times. The number of active members is far, far less than 30,000.

[GFinDC]

Signed, and posted to my Facebook page. They have a little Facebook line to share the petition on the site. Can't hurt to try.

83 signatures when I signed. Pretty weak showing so far.

[wheeleezdryver]

just signed it & posted to my FB page... 92 signatures so far...

[Leah's Mom]

I am in Canada, so I doubt that my signing would mean anything (no vote-no clout).

The board has been running almost seven years. Over that time, people have come seeking help, and after having found that help, have moved on. I began reading in July of 2004, and signed up in December. In my time, I have seen that pattern so many times. The number of active members is far, far less than 30,000.

Since the US is the leading manufacturer for pharmaceuticals, legislation mandating labeling would help people with gluten allergies in every country:)

[MelindaLee]

I was #126!

[Rowena]

#155... Woot... I like that number... Though unless we get more people, I dont know if it will happen. *pout* *goes to facebook to recruit.*

[kareng]

My oldest just signed # 158.

[Rowena]

I got people from the Netherlands signing!!! Man I love my friends...

[Leah's Mom]

On Tuesday, the gluten-free labeling petition was the #1 most active petition in the U.S. Now we are down to #10 most active and have only 195 signatures . I've got to say I'm surprised and disappointed. I contacted every Celiac organization in the United States(including universities with medical depts. studying Celiacs) on the Internet, and gave them the petition information to pass along. It's obviously not happening. This is a great way to grab the public's attention and show the FDA we are serious about this labeling issue. Unless we have a much larger number of signatures (tens of thousands) they won't bother giving it a second thought. The FDA has never responded back to me regarding what percentage of U.S. drugs contains gluten vs. those that are gluten- free. Why? Because they don't know the answer. If they were to contact a pharmaceutical representative, the representative wouldn't be able to come up with a number either. How do I know? I've called at least 10 manufacturers of pharmaceutical products and none of them have been able to give me a solid answer. Half of those companies couldn't even tell me if the majority or minority of their products contained gluten. Scared? You should be. Tell your friends and other people on this site and forums on other sites that they need to sign the petition so a collective group will hold these companies accountable for what they put in their products! Thanks to all of you who have already signed

-Marcie

[heatherjane]

I was #219. I'll forward this link to my local support group and post on FB. Thanks for taking action!

[BethJ]

No. 221 here . . . I was expecting to see hundreds of signatures. It's on my Facebook page now. Hope it helps!

[glutengal]

Just signed #263

[GFinDC]

I posted links to the Delphi celiac board today.

Open Original Shared Link

[bincongo]

I sent it to a local support group. Maybe it will get around.

[ChemistMama]

Since the US is the leading manufacturer for pharmaceuticals, legislation mandating labeling would help people with gluten allergies in every country:)

Hve you talked to Steve Plogsted who does glutenfreedrugs.com? He's a pharmacist and has been telling the FDA about this for years.

[mushroom]

The major problem with making drugs gluten free seems to be that the ingredients are sourced worldwide, so while the actual drug may be put together in the USA, e.g., its components are sourced from many different countries and you would have to make them all comply with us labeling laws. And then, again, a prescription I had filled at Walmart was actually totally manufactured in Mumbai

[Takala]

If they were putting peanuts in drugs willy nilly and randomly there would be heck to pay, but put wheat in and it's so what, it didn't kill you.

And this is eventually going to lead to another massive poisoning like the melamine in the pet foods, and then in the Chinese baby formula, because if they can't track the gluten they can't really track any of the other ingredients, either.

All people are asking is that it be called on the label if it's there. What a concept! They seem to be able to tell if the active ingredient is there or not.

[Marilyn R]

I was only #476. You've worked hard on this Marcee. I would have expected that more people would have participated.