SPORTS DRUGS House investigating safety of ephedra

The supplement is believed to have played a role in the death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler after using a dietary supplement containing ephedra caused federal and state officials and sports teams to re-examine whether the popular herb is safe.
Now Congress, which in 1994 severely limited federal oversight of dietary supplements, is getting into the act as well.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which began looking at ephedra after Bechler's death during spring training in February, is holding two days of hearings.
Ephedra is used to lose weight and boost athletic performance.
"Based on all the evidence we have seen, the industry has not adequately addressed the safety of ephedra-based diet products," said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for committee chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La.
Sifting through comments
The Food and Drug Administration is sifting through 16,000 comments responding to its March proposal to order warning labels on bottles of ephedra.
The FDA has not tried to ban the product, despite reports of more than 100 deaths being linked to the herb, citing the 1994 law.
In May, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the nation's first statewide ban on ephedra.
And the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, was to testify today that thousands of customers of the Metabolife brand of ephedra, who complained to the company about health problems, did not abuse the product but took only the recommended amount.
The GAO said in April there was not enough information to link the complaints to the pills.
Bechler's parents are scheduled to lead off a parade of witnesses, including ex-officials of Metabolife International, the nation's largest producer of ephedra-based dietary supplements, who were subpoenaed to appear; Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris; FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan; and officials of Major League Baseball, the National Football League and NASCAR.
Kiley Bechler, the pitcher's widow, filed suit in federal court last week against the manufacturer and the distributor of the supplement containing ephedra that was found in his locker.
The lawsuit names Cytodyne Technologies and its president, Robert Chinery, who is also on the House committee's witness list.
Contributed to death
Medical examiner Joshua Perper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Bechler died, said ephedra in the weight-loss supplement Xenadrine RFA-1 contributed to the heatstroke that killed the pitcher. Toxicology tests confirmed that "significant amounts" of the over-the-counter supplement and other factors led to the attack.
Cytodyne officials released a letter to the House committee from forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, former New York City chief medical examiner, who says that ephedra didn't cause Bechler's death.
"At the time Mr. Bechler collapsed from heat stroke, much of the ephedrine he had swallowed was still in his stomach and had not yet entered his bloodstream," Baden wrote. The unabsorbed ephedrine "could not have caused or contributed to Mr. Bechler's death."
Ephedra is banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Football League and the International Olympic Committee but not Major League Baseball.