A grassroots campaign by the Natural Products Association (NPA) in Illinois successfully blocked the introduction of legislation that would restrict access to nutritional supplements. ​In last year’s session, legislation (HB 3948) was introduced in Illinois that would prohibit the sale of healthy, safe and legal products to minors and require supplements like protein powder to be placed under lock and key only accessible by a manager. As a result of NPA’s campaign, no such legislation was introduced during this year’s session.

This recent victory for consumers of nutritional supplements follows the reintroduction of legislation in California, New York and Massachusetts that would place a costly burden on small businesses who have already been hard hit by the COVID-19 health and economic crisis.

“This is a dangerous and far-reaching proposal that we are seeing bubble up in more and more state capitals and we are on full alert for copycat legislation. Thanks to our network, we were able to block this from seeing the light of day,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO. “Just as we work at the state level to block efforts to reduce access, we are redoubling our efforts to expand access to nutritional supplements through federal programs and health savings accounts.”

This year, NPA launched a new effort to expand access to nutritional supplements for all communities through the tax code and assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

For more information, visit www.npanational.org.