By Scott C. Tips
October 2007
I was recently struck by a thought that in this new “Age of Terrorism” we – you and I – have been subjected to a form of terrorism that can best be described as “scientific terrorism.”

Of course, if a terrorist pulls a gun on innocent people and shoots them, or blows himself up in a crowded area and takes innocent lives, then he has clearly committed a terrorist act. The definition of terrorism itself is, I know, at once vaguer and more involved than that; however, it is enough for my purpose here to describe it in this way because such terrorists will have, if successful, deprived those individuals of their health and even lives.

With Diplomas, Not Guns

Consider, then, those persons who don’t use guns but instead diplomas, impressive titles, and computers to deprive us of our health and even our lives. For most people, these kinds of terrorists are hard to spot. They often wear suits and ties, sport enough degrees after their names to choke an elephant, and speak in serious and seemingly knowledgeable tones about science and health. And they can kill you just as dead as any trigger-happy terrorist hefting a box-cutter or an AK-47.

So where do we find these scientific terrorists? Unfortunately, they usually occupy positions of power and authority – in the medical community, in universities, and in government circles. And from these lofty bastions of dominion, they issue pronouncements that they expect most people to believe and act upon, starry-eyed and without looking beyond the superficial credentials and appearances. Regrettably, most people do.

For years, these Scientific Terrorists have been telling you:

To take drugs when they are either unnecessary or contraindicated;
To undergo surgery when either unnecessary or contraindicated;
To undergo radiation treatment when either unnecessary or contraindicated;
To undergo hospitalization when either unnecessary or contraindicated;
That pesticide and herbicide residues in your foods will not hurt you or your children;
That vitamin-and-mineral supplements are a waste of money and result in nothing more than expensive urine;
That organic and whole foods are unnecessary and a waste of money;
That expensive and costly regulations are necessary to protect your health; and
That you are incapable of making "complicated" health and safety decisions affecting you and your family's health, which decisions are better left in the hands of the educated elite.

The Butcher's Bill

But, as we know, these experts – who are supposedly so smart and capable – almost always get “it” wrong. And, worse, when they get it wrong, they do a spectacular job of it too. Although the data varies depending upon the source, just look at what the butcher’s bill comes to:

The above figures do not include those outpatient deaths from medical intervention (some 199,000 annually at a cost of $77 billion), or the astounding figures from Dr. Lucien Leape’s 1997 study of medical and drug-error rates (3 million deaths annually, he reports!) (Leape LL, “Error in Medicine,” JAMA, 1994 Dec 21;272(23):1851-7).

On the more conservative end of the spectrum, even an expert panel from the Institute of Medicine (of the National Academy of Sciences) found that medical errors kill from 44,000 to 98,000 Americans each year. (British Medical Journal, 1999 December 11; 319(7224): 1519.

Medical errors in the United States alone cause more deaths annually than car crashes, AIDS, or breast and prostate cancer. This is equal to a 300-person jumbo jet crashing every single day of the year, day after day after day.

And They Are Still At It

These terrorists, though, are not just content with subjecting us to their brand of medieval medicine. They also seemingly want to make sure that we are vulnerable to diseases and medical problems, which in turn will require increased use of their medicines and hospitals. Why do I say this? Because every time that any of us use effective preventative measures to protect ourselves, they try to suppress them – through the media, through doctors, and, above all, through their coercive enforcement tool – the government.

And what are examples of this? Just consider the attempts of some “institutions” to limit the potency of dietary supplements, which are scientifically-proven disease preventatives. At the Codex level and in the European Union, the German Risk Assessment Institute (BfR) has put forth what it considers to be the maximum permitted upper levels of safe consumption of vitamin-and-mineral supplements. They caution, for instance, that no niacin supplements above 17 milligrams should be sold to consumers. Nor should Vitamin C tablets exceed 225 milligrams. For mineral supplements the BfR is equally strict: zinc tablets should not exceed 10 milligrams, nor should selenium capsules go above 70 milligrams each.

Given the overwhelming amount of evidence that exists showing not only the safety of such supplements but their efficacy, there can only be two reasons why they are trying to suppress these alternative means: Either they are (1) completely clueless, or (2) they are trying to keep us sick, or worse, kill us.

Of course, there are well-intentioned individuals in every such group. But for those who are engaging in these activities knowingly and with, as they say in law school, deliberate aforethought, these persons are terrorists in every sense of the word. And there is a very special place in hell reserved for them, I’m sure.

Fortunately, there are many of us working together to stop this form of scientific terrorism. The National Health Federation has been on its own anti-terrorist mission for years now throughout the World, but especially in the United States and at Codex. They may have the advantage of more money, but we have the advantage of something more important: We actually fight for Freedom, and for Life itself.

Attorney Scott C. Tips is President and Legal Counsel for the US-based National Health Federation.

CODEX 12/11/07: "The National Health Federation (NHF), the world’s longest-standing health-freedom organisation, is today beginning a week of meetings at the 29th session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU). The NHF is unique as being the only consumer health-freedom organization in the world to enjoy official observer delegate status at Codex."

"the NHF therefore has the opportunity to make representations on behalf of natural health interests all over the world, which are presently being threatened by over-regulation stimulated by spurious science, misinformed media attacks and corporate pressure from large food and pharmaceutical concerns............"