Noticeboard i SToCk.Com / Jk1991 your letters Keeping it healthy online Setting up a website that makes misleading health claims is easily done. Whats not so easy is to regulate these sites so they cant go on to influence and dupe large numbers of people. Consumer champion Healthwatch, like trading standards, often sees cases where unscrupulous traders take down websites when challenged, only to open them up again with different addresses. Sometimes they even start new businesses that make the same claims. Apart from financial loss, real harm can be caused to peoples health by following the wild claims of charlatans. However, litigation is a cumbersome and slow process, quite unsuited to the digital age. We believe there must be a faster and more effective way to bring these traders into compliance, for the protection of the public. So Healthwatch is seeking to establish a debate between National Trading Standards, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) about a better way of targeting false marketing claims on consumer health websites. A recent example highlights the difficulties faced by regulators. Energise UK claimed on its website energiseforlife.com that taking its alkaline salts had 12 health benefits, ranging from normalised blood pressure to improved mental functioning. Energise UK falsely claimed that these benefits had been tested and `proven by the European Food Standards Agency. The claims were investigated by trading standards after research from Healthwatch, and action was taken only for the business to relaunch under a new name and clearly state that it was replacing the energiseforlife.com site. The alkaline salts being sold are imported from Robert O Young, in the USA, who is currently in prison for practising medicine without a licence, and who has been associated with the deaths of cancer patients. As readers will know, trading standards departments have been severely depleted by government austerity. The officer dealing with the Energise UK issue left, and the department has no capacity to deal with the case further. Under current circumstances, we dont feel it would be reasonable to expect a trading standards officer (TSO) to read 11 scientific papers to assess them for evidence. However, expert organisations such as Healthwatch can and did. The idea of using outside expert evidence is not a new one. The charity Sense About Science, for example, maintains a very large list of experts who are consulted on matters of scientific evidence, and we wonder if this is a model that trading standards could adopt. Other examples of this way of working include the ASA, which engages experts to help with adjudications, paying them modest fees but maybe a call for volunteers by trading standards is viable? An objection might be that TSOs always have to consider what happens when a case comes to court; informal advice from a volunteer might not stand up before a judge. But Energise UK has, so far, not been taken to court, and the voluntary advice supplied by Healthwatch supported trading standards in taking initial action. Although the trader has defaulted on an agreement to desist, the original advice remains valid, and we believe it can be used repeatedly until the trader complies. If it does not, the option of legal action remains, and we feel the same advice can be formalised as expert testimony. Wed like to open a dialogue on how expert witnesses could help trading standards, and comments are invited. Please contact me by email or via the Healthwatch website. Les Rose, trustee Healthwatch (charity 1003392) les.rose@healthwatch-uk.org www.healthwatch-uk.org/LesRose goT aN oPINIoN? We want to hear it. Email tstoday@ tsi.org.uk to add your voice to the discussion. We reserve the right to edit letters.