UK upholds kava ban

The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) both declined to reinstate kava kava to the UK market last week, even though some within the herbal products industry maintain that the ban was unmerited to begin with.

The sale and import of foods and herbal medicine products containing kava was originally banned in the UK in 2002 after data given to the MHRA the year before by the Committee on Safety of Medicines’ Expert Working Group (EWG) and the Medicines Commission, which agreed that in rare cases, the use of unlicensed medicinal products containing the herb could lead to possible liver damage.

The FSA reviewed this evidence and, after consulting with the Committee on Toxicology (COT), agreed that the risk was also evident for food uses.

The ban on kava came into effect on January 13, 2003. The FSA insists that it was necessary to bring in laws banning the herb, saying it was “the only means by which we can adequately protect public health.”

However, at the time of the ban, Professor Edzard Ernst, chair of Complementary Medicine at Exeter University, said it was too far-reaching. “Kava is proven to be effective in treating anxiety and, looking at the total risk, it is safer than synthetic drugs. If we are going to ban kava today, then we should have banned Valium twenty years ago,” he said.

Likewise, Ralph Pike, director of the National Association of Health Stores, concurred, saying, “This ban is unlawful, irrational, scientifically and morally bankrupt, procedurally defective and may even be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

A commitment was made by health Ministers to review the available evidence on kava after two years, resulting in the new communication on the subject.

The COT looked at evidence submitted to the agency and scientific reviews at a meeting held in December 2005, with the EWG doing so at a meeting in October 2005, following three months of public consultation at the beginning of last year.

The COT reviewed human studies on case reports, clinical trials, epidemiological studies, urinary metabolites, as well as animal and in vitro studies and articles.

As stated in the meeting minutes, “Members considered that the new data were not sufficient to demonstrate the safety of food products containing kava kava, particularly considering the severe nature of the hepatoxicity linked with kava kava consumption.”

As well, the EWG found that the prohibition order banning the herb remained “justified and proportional.”

The FSA said that if any new evidence becomes available that suggests the ban is no longer necessary, the prohibition will be reviewed. The UK is taking a more cautionary approach than Germany, where a ban on kava kava was lifted in May 2005. Products must now be registered in that country.

In Wales the ban was lifted in late 2002 due to enforcement difficulties. New regulations are expected but, as of yet, have not been put in place.

Other countries, such as Portugal and France, have withdrawn the herb from sale to varying degrees. Canada and Australia advise against taking kava kava while a risk assessment is being performed, and the US and New Zealand have also initiated safety assessments, though kava still remains available for sale at present.

© Copyright 2007 Insight Journal Online Magazine.

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