From Hedi Green.
I READ with interest the article titled ‘Tests show seized herbal pills posed no health risk’ (JEP, 1 Jun).

Dr Susan Turnbull stated: ‘This has marked the end of a rigorous process of analysis…and the tiny amounts of the substance almost certainly are not enough to cause any harm to health.’

This rigorous process started out with a rather Gestapo-like operation in March of this year which involved the police, representatives from Health followed by reporters from the JEP ‘raiding’ the premises of Dr Beijing and seizing the said herbal pills.

The hypocrisy of it, after all, is that five per cent of admissions to hospitals in the UK are as a result of adverse reactions to prescription drugs (House of Commons Health Committee report – Influence of the pharmaceutical industry report volume 1 2004/2005).

Perhaps Dr Turnbull would arrange similar operations in the pharmacies across the Island and seize a random assortment of drugs that are available over the counter, as well as prescription drugs, and send them off for the same rigorous analysis so that the public at large can be reassured that these drugs pose no health risk, cause liver damage, kidney failure and even cancer?