Thousands of Canadians may have suffered serious adverse reactions from using natural health products, says Health Canada, but the figures were not detailed until a correction to the “error” was made a month later.
On Aug. 15, an erratum was published to correct a July 6 legal notice on new labelling rules for natural health products (NHP), in which the number of “serious” incidents under the section on adverse event reporting related to NHP use were not included.
“From the introduction of the NHPR [Natural Health Products Regulations] in 2004 until December 2021, Health Canada has received reports of over 8,000 adverse reactions in which NHP use had a suspected role, of which over 5,000 were serious,” the erratum notice said….