I applaud you for publishing Martina Watts' article about the Government's rigging of the vote to pass the Food Supplements Directive (The Argus, July 19).

As Martina's article indicated, I attended the committee meeting as a public observer and can confirm that the manner in which this legislation was railroaded through was an affront to democracy.

The Junior Health Minister, Melanie Johnson, speaking in defence of the regulations, spoke for less than 20 minutes, and it was clear she was trying to avoid answering direct questions.

The only positive thing she could find to say about the directive was it would "open up markets for products manufactured by UK businesses in other member states" - proof indeed that the Food Supplements Directive was designed to benefit business, not consumers.

It is ironic our "leaders" wish to add fluoride to our water supply - in the form of hexafluorosilicic acid (an unpurified hazardous toxic waste by-product of the phosphate fertiliser industry derived from the pollution scrubber liquor from its factory chimneys) - while at the same time banning 5,000 safe nutritional supplement products, the majority of which have been on sale in the UK for decades.

Our junk food-laden and pharmaceutically-tranquillised society is bombarded almost daily with media propaganda that nutritional supplements are detrimental to their health and only rarely do newspapers give space to the truth.

Nutrition writers such as Martina Watts are in short supply and I commend The Argus for publishing her column on a weekly basis.

-Paul Anthony Taylor, Darlington, County Durham