To understand why Sen. John McCain introduced a bill on dietary supplements, read the press releases. The legislation announced Feb. 3  addresses public safety, but mostly it’s about the reputation and revenue of professional and Olympic sports.

The evidence: McCain says in the release that “a little over a year ago the NFL suspended six players, including two players from one of the teams competing this Sunday, for violating the league’s anti-doping policy.  Several of the players were surprised that they tested positive for a banned substance because they used a dietary supplement they believed to be safe and legal.”

McCain ends the release, “It is my hope that this legislation will ensure that all Americans, including athletes, have all the information necessary to make informed decision when choosing whether to use a dietary supplement, and that the FDA has the ability to remove any harmful dietary supplements from the market.”

What organization was first to endorse the legislation? Major League Baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig issued a statement supporting the bill and MLB.com reported on McCain’s announcement of the legislation.

Next on board: The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which issued a press release with an affiliated group, Supplement Safety Now. Its members include Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, PGA, NCAA and other national sports organizations. All are powerful organizations inside and outside Washington. And they share a complaint: Their athletes have been unwitting victims of mislabeled supplements that caused disqualifications and suspensions.

In other words, the products were bad for business. The groups want to arm the FDA with the data to monitor supplements and the power to yank immediately the detrimental ones off the shelf. They found an ally in McCain, whose 2008 presidential campaign received substantial financial support from athletes and others in pro sports, ESPN reports.

The initial response from groups representing supplement makers and marketers was tepid. “Though we have not yet examined this bill completely, it places new burdens on dietary supplements that are not required for any other class of food,” Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association said the third paragraph of a press release.

The last sentence of the third paragraph of a press release from the Council for Responsible Nutrition quotes CEO Steve Mister as saying, “The best way to help consumers is through collaborative efforts with industry, government and other stakeholders, such as USADA, to implement the current laws, to provide more resources and funding to FDA, and to pass the food safety bill, which already includes many of these provisions.”

As the bill moves from the headlines to the sidelines, look for an intense lobbying effort by sports organizations. Supplement-related scandals have hurt their reputations and wallets. They see a solution in increased federal action and will push hard for that.

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The DEA’s actions are the equivalent of the carnival game, “Gopher Bash,” in which you take a soft, oversized mallet and bop gophers on the head when they emerge through holes in a playing surface. Even though you might strike all the gophers on the head, they keep popping up.

The DEA, FDA, nutritional supplement make, retailers and some athletes are all prisoners of this game. The DEA is trying to keep up with companies that synthesize new forms of steroids. In this instance, the agency declared off the shelves the following — Madol, boldione and 19-nor-4,9(10)-Androstadienedione. Because they are now considered anabolic steroids, retailers run the risk of arrest if they sell supplements containing those substances. Manufacturers and marketers have to find another way to market the substances, which may be available by prescription.

And as more substances make their way onto the DEA list, makers, distributors and stores will have to keep a close eye on what they should — and should not — be producing and stocking. And athletes have to watch what they keep on their shelves; they do not want to accidentally take a substance that was banned after they bought it.

Rather than notify the DEA of a problem substance, Travis Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said in a statement that, “We need a regulatory system capable of managing the magnitude of this problem, and that can stop those rogue supplement manufacturers who are meanwhile profiting.”

Who might that regulator be? The logical choice would be the federal  agency that oversees drugs and nutritional supplements. Whether the FDA wants the full responsibility is yet to be seen.

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In the trade, it is called public service journalism, but this may qualify more as a disservice.  In the Sept. 21 issue with Tim Tebow on the cover (again?), ESPN Magazine devotes two well-illustrated and detailed pages on performance-enhancing drugs. This is a must read for every attorney who represents an athlete who tests positive. The article probably should not be allowed in the libraries of middle and high schools.

Curious about how to get in shape before pro hockey or baseball season starts? Use Tri-Test, says ESPN. Want to come off a steroid cycle? Do like Manny Ramirez and take HCG. The article explains how each drug works, its legal status with the World Anti-Doping Agency, and why athletes risk taking the product.

The article gives popular other names for a drug; our favorite is Apache, Dance Fever and Goodfella, all of which refer to Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate that ESPN writes has achieved popularity among some weightlifters.

ESPN warns, “Don’t try these at home,” to which we would add, ” or in a clubhouse, at a track meet or in a weight room.”

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We are not sure of the reason, but it seems that every three months or so, a national media outlet weighs in on an old story: tainted nutritional supplements. To be sure, the story will not go away in the sports world. Athletes who test positive for steroids often say they thought they were taking vitamins.

The dietary dangers faced by professional players is a good launching point for a substantive news story. If the pros can be victims, what about the amateurs playing high school and college sports? What are the players’ coaches doing about the dangers of contaminated supplements? Are industry forces and organized sports working together to eliminate the problem? If not, why not?

No, we get a rehash of anecdotes with the same question: Are vitamins safe? So goes the Sept. 7 article in the Wall Street Journal headlined, “What’s Really in Supplements?” with the ominous sub-headline, “Regulators and Physicians Raise Alarms About Dangerous Ingredients in Many Herbal Remedies.” The illustration is scarier; it features demons escaping an opened capsule.

Among the article’s weaknesses:

• No one at the FDA raises an alarm. One FDA official says consumers should read labels and another says that the agency is doing the best it can to find and ban bad products.
• Just a few — not the headlined many — herbal remedies are cited as causing problems. The article reaches back five years to a now-banned substance as an example. Why bring up ephedra if product integrity is an issue today?
• No event gives the article urgency. No one famous has become ill or died from taking a supplement. The most notable recalled product of recent times is Hydroxycut, which gets no mention. The article says that the  FDA will hold hearings this month without giving specifics.
• The reader service is laudable, but not prominent enough. The first mention of information sources about supplements appears in the fifth paragraph, after the anecdotal lead about a policeman who unwittingly took steroids.
• Statistical evidence of the prevalence of product contamination devolves into a he-said, she-said between HFL Sports Science and the Council for Responsible Nutrition.

After all of that, the Journal article treads on much of the same ground covered in a May 18 Sports Illustrated article that also fed on fear with the headline, “What you don’t know might kill you.” Where is the news?

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