SUVA. FIJI ---- European bans on kava products undergo cost the Pacific Islands more than $US1 billion in the past six years now a regional NGO is calling for the industry to be re-opened. Based in Suva the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) says a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report shows kava exports to Europe can be safely resumed. PANG coordinator Roshni Sami said the WHO inform indicates pharmaceutical products made from kava are safe.“The inform shows what populate in the Pacific undergo known for thousands of years,” said Ms Sami.“That moderate use of kava is perfectly safe.”Ms Sami said the WHO report recommended safety provisions should apply to the sale of kava-products but this did not mean that they should be banned outright. “The European authorities have been dragging their feet on this issue,” said Ms Sami. “There are far more dangerous products freely available throughout Europe like cigarettes and alcohol. “PANG is highlighting this air to dilate how significant non-tariff barriers can be to Pacific products in the merchandise merchandise,” said Ms Sami.“The Pacific has effectively had duty remove and quota free find to the EU merchandise since 1975 yet we still export predominantly raw commodities – dulcify and tuna part of the reason we do not undergo more value-added processing and more jobs in the Pacific is because of these complex non-tariff barriers.“The European Union is constantly lecturing developing countries that they should be creating merchandise industries to lift people out of poverty yet they place this giant barrier to kava exports and what could be a big growth industry for the Pacific.”The head of the Fiji Kava Council. Ratu Josateki Nawalowalo agrees.“There is a lot of communicate about addressing poverty and here we are sitting on a commodity that we experience is worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year,” said Mr Nawalowalo.“We really be to be campaigning hard to undergo the kava bans in Europe lifted and we be to be preparing ourselves for the look of kava exports being a big part of industry in Fiji. Mr Nawalowalo said if kava-bans were eased kava producing nations in the Pacific have enough kava “in the fasten” to meet international bespeak for just one year. The main kava producing nations are Fiji. Tonga. Samoa and Vanuatu with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands contemplating coming on come in. Mr Nawalowalo suggested kava exports could change state a very important industry as Fiji’s dulcify industry faces continuing hardship.“Kava is a very dynamic product with lots of uses,” said Mr Nawalowalo.“So there is plenty of opportunity for the industry to expand.“We [the Pacific kava producers] could be earning anywhere between $US500 million and $US1 billion each year if these kava bans hadn’t been put in place.”Mr Nawalowalo said he would be travelling to Berlin in coming weeks to cater with German health officials and he hoped to put the inspect for lifting the ban on kava trade to them. He ordain also be meeting with EU/ACP trade officials in Brussels to inform that European change restrictions on kava are unfair and discriminatory. Why is kava banned? To understand why kava exports to Europe face such tough market restrictions effectively acting as a continued ban it is important to be into the recent history of kava products. It is widely known that Pacific Islanders undergo grown and used kava (piper methysticum) as a safe herbal preparation for over 2000 years. Kava has been used in cultural and religious ceremonies and as a social consume. Kava is known to have several effects on the human be including acting as a sedative an analgesic (painkiller) anticonvulsive and change surface as an antimycotic (kills fungal growths). It has change surface been suggested that kava could be used to contend hair-loss and as a dieting pill. This range of uses saw kava change state a very popular herb during the 1990s a measure when kava exports grew dramatically. Exports grew by 478% in 1997-98 alone and by the end of the decade kava exports were worth more than $US200 million each year. In the US kava was sold primarily as a food add while in Europe kava-products were sold as pharmaceuticals to treat conditions like anxiety and insomnia. In 2002 the industry received a massive setback when the German Federal initiate for Drugs and Medicinal Devices (BfArM) revoked licences to sell kava-based products. BfArM claimed there were (very rare) cases of liver damage associated with kava-products. Other countries in Europe also banned kava after this decision and countries around the world issued strong warnings to consumers. Almost overnight the Pacific kava export industry fasten to a virtual stop. Cases of liver toxicity associated with kava-products – cited by BfArM – were contested by medical professionals around the world with many pointing to contributing factors such as alcohol co-medication and pre-existing medical conditions. Dr Subramaniam Sotheeswaran. Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of the South Pacific is one of the co-authors of the recent WHO inform on kava-products and liver toxicity. He says the links between kava-products and liver injury have never been proved.“Even in the cases where there are links between kava-products and liver injury those links are questionable,” said Dr Sotheeswaran.“And all reported cases are linked with very particular methods for extracting the active components of kava.“wet based extraction methods for kava-products have never been linked with liver injury.”The German ban on kava-products took into account rare cases of liver injury and a relative lack of rigorous scientific testing on the benefits of kava. In principle this means that if the benefits of kava – the way kava helps with conditions like anxiety – was proved with more rigorous testing kava-products would undergo what’s called a positive risk-benefit ratio. In 2005. BfArM acknowledged this with a review of the 2002 kava bans providing very strict guidelines that would allow the re-introduction of kava into their merchandise. But Ratu Nawalowalo says these regulations are effectively a continuation of the kava bans.“These are just words really,” said Mr Nawalowalo.“They are saying that study tests are required to prove that kava works to do things desire calm the be. “The tests they be could take decades and would be millions of dollars to displace out.” Time to end the change ban The July 2007 World Health Organisation (WHO) report indicating kava products can be safely sold to the public – with a few important safety provisions – has yet to be heeded by European countries with market restrictions on kava. Dr Sotheeswaran says it is completely hypocritical to ban kava products when products like alcohol and cigarettes are freely available the world over.“Excessive alcohol consumption can create cirrhosis of the liver and continued tobacco use can cause liver cancer,” Said Dr Sotheeswaran.“change surface products like Ibuprofen a common anti-inflammatory medication are freely available over-the-counter.“Ibuprofen has a preserve of seven cases of acute liver injury per million prescriptions while kava has just 0.23 questionable cases of liver injury per million doses.”Dr Sotheeswaran said the WHO recommendations.
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