NEWS AND COMMENT James Ossuary Verdict: Ossuary Genuine, Inscription Fake The James ossuary, touted as the mortu- That scenario was proved accurate medicine" industry in Australia. ary box of Jesus' brother, is a fake, along by a committee of experts assembled Australia has a two-tiered regulation with another recently "discovered" artifact by the Israeli Antiquities Authority system for health-related devices, medi- owned by die same Jerusalem dealer, die and utilizing a panoply of sophisti- cines, and food supplements, adminis- Israeli Antiquities Authority concluded. cated analytical techniques. The pat- tered by die Therapeutic Goods The dealer, Oded Golan, was arrested by ina on the letters was discovered Administration (TGA—the Australian police at his Tel Aviv home, where forgery to be false, consisting of powdered counterpart of the Food and Drug equipment was discovered. chalk suspended in water and applied Administration). It requires all prescrip- The ossuary—a limestone box used to the inscription. At Oded Golan's tion, plus some non-prescription phar- to hold skeletal remains—bears an home, reported CNN.com, police macy medicines (paracetamol, aspirin, Aramaic inscription, "James, son of discovered forgery items "including etc.) to be "registered" together with evi- Joseph, brother of Jesus." Biblical stencils, stones, and partially com- dence of their safety, quality control in Archeology Review and other sources, pleted forgeries." manufacture, and efficacy. Other items, including a book by Hershel Shanks and those that are considered to present —Joe Nickell Ben Witherington III, The Brother of lower levels of risk, are "listed," requir- ing only evidence of safety and quality James (2003), promoted the box and its Joe Nickell is CSICOP's Senior Research control. The overwhelming proportion inscription as authentic. Skeptics cau- Fellow and author o/Detecting Forgery. of complementary medicines, vitamins, minerals, and food supplements sold in Australia are listed items. All products are required to display on their packag- ing either an AustR(egistered) or AustL(isted) number, indicating the level at which they are regulated. In January 2003, TGA was notified of serious illnesses suffered by some eighty people (nineteen requiring hospitaliza- tion) who had taken a popular travel sick- ness preventative medicine, Travacalm, a Registered product. Concerned by this, TGA conducted an analysis of Travacalm purchased from a pharmacy, revealing that tablets in one package contained amounts of the active ingredient, hyoscinc, varying between none at all and seven times the safe dosage. These alarming results caused TGA to conduct an immediate audit of the tioned that the provenance was un- manufacturer. Pan Pharmaceuticals known, and several scholars suggested One Nation's Victory Ltd., to test its compliance with regula- that the phrase "brother of Jesus" might for Sanity Over tions. Pan, a listed public company, have been a late addition. Alternative Medicine makes and markets a wide variety of A special report in SKEPTICAL complementary healthcare products INQUIRER, "Bone (Box) of Contention" under its own brand names, as well as (Joe Nickell, March/April 2003). pre- What began as eidier an act of careless- being a contract manufacturer for sev- sented evidence that an antique ossuary ness or a deliberate attempt to flout reg- eral other companies. The audit found had been recendy carved with a false ulations by a manufacturer has resulted serious quality control failures in the inscription and a fake patina (coating of in a furor that calls into question the process, along with other faulty manu- age) possibly added. future of the entire "complementary facturing practices that rang alarm bells. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/October 2003 5 NEWS AND COMMENT TGA then expanded its audit to all they amounted to $2.4 billion media interest was at its height, die products manufactured by the company, (Australian) per year. Once the staple of Premier of New South Wales, Hon. Bob including not only its relatively small health food stores, they have since Carr MP, appeared on TV saying, ". it range of Registered products, but also its become major sellers in pharmacies, appears that most of these products give far larger range of Listed items. At that some of which display a whole wall of no more benefit than colored water"; a stage, Pan was the manufacturer of a assorted varieties of snake-oil remedies. national TV science program. Catalyst, high proportion of listed supplements With that much money at stake, it is aired a report on their investigation into and medicines sold in Australia, as well hardly surprising that the level of com- various herbal remedies, which showed as others for export to forty countries. plaint from the industry was high. wide variations in the amount of active Charging Pan with unacceptable The spin they sought to put on the ingredient and lack of uniformity in manufacturing procedures, inadequate facts was higher still. Reptesentatives of many preparations; the chairman of the quality control, falsification of records, the industry lobby group the Comple- Australian Olympic Committee, John and other misdemeanors, TGA revoked mentary Healthcare Council (made up of Coates (alert to the threat posed to ath- its license to manufacture in April 2003. manufacturers, resellers, and "alternative" letes by inadvertent ingestion of pro- It then instituted an immediate compul- practitioners) approached the Federal scribed substances), called for much sory product recall of (at last count and Government, seeking a grant of $ 11 mil- sterner regulation of the labeling of sup- ongoing) more than 1,500 products, by lion of taxpayers' money to fund "public plements. far the largest recall of health-related (or education on the benefits of complemen- More important, it now seems that any other) products in the nation's his- tary health supplements." Amazed at the Australian Skeptics' long years of advo- tory. Several companies marketing prod- sheer effrontery of this claim, Australian cacy that providers of "alternative" med- ucts made by Pan, but sold under their Skeptics immediately countered with a icine be held to no lowet standards of own brand names, were caught in the petition to its local Member of accountability than apply to orthodox net, with fourteen who failed to comply Parliament, requesting that no such with TGA reporting procedures also funds be allocated, suggesting rather having their licenses revoked. that any available money would be bet- iMWA,TE«*IPlC Consternation, verging on panic, ter spent on educating the public that THINS! reigned throughout the entire alterna- most supplements were unnecessary tive health industry. Health food shops and many other complementary med- and pharmacies denuded their shelves of icines were untested for efficacy. (As suspect vitamin, herbal, and mineral our local MP is both a medical practi- supplements; spokespeople for the alter- tioner and the Federal Minister for native/complementary healthcare indus- Education, we felt we were on firm try took to the newspapers and the air- ground.) waves in serried ranks, aiming blame at Then things went from bad to the regulators, the government, the worse for the industry. While the medical "establishment," multinational pharmaceutical companies, and anyone else who they thought appropriate; law- suits were launched in all directions; bewildered consumers stopped taking their (often self-prescribed) pills and besieged their suppliers demanding refunds. To date, no cases have been teported of anyone suffering any ill effects from ceasing to take their pills. Aided by an unfortunate relaxation of the advertising regulations for health- care products, sales of complementary medicines have undergone massive o 3 increases in the past five years, with a 2001 study conducted by Adelaide University suggesting that 6 Septembtr/October 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS AND COMMENT medicine might at last bear fruit. The many shocking facts and statistics. [See One of the newest "discoveries" is the government has introduced legislation his article "Why Is Pseudoscience hologramic patch, a "flat torsion genera- requiring a much higher degree of Dangerous?" and three other reports on tor," as a protector against harmful radi- compliance, evidence of efficacy, and Science and Pseudoscience in Russia, ation of cell telephones, microwaves, TV accuracy in labeling for manufacturers SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, July/August 2002.] sets, and so on. A fury of resistance meets of complementary medicines, with According to Kruglyakov, hundreds anybody who appeals to the courts to very large financial penalties for non- of domestic medical "apparatus" came take away the licenses from these charla- compliance. Further, it has announced on the Russian market promising help tans. All attempts by activists of Russian an inquiry into the entire alternative for up to 350 different diseases. Many Humanist Society and its magazine medicine industry, to report to are based on so-called quantum medi- Zdravyj Smysl (Common Sense) to Parliament within diree months. Sanity cine. One series of devices claims to revoke the licenses of these "biofield cor- might just stand a chance. catch radiation from diseased cells and rectors" were stopped by the office of One final lighter note. During the return it to them in the "opposite General Procurator. media frenzy a group of enterprising Pseudoscience in Russia has become orchardists placed advertisements in a well-organized