A new medical products law is expected to tighten controls on what reaches Barbados’ shelves, amid concern that items banned elsewhere have been sold here and that unproven health claims are being used to mislead consumers.

Marsha Caddle, the economic affairs and planning minister, said the Barbados Medical Products Bill, which went before the House of Assembly on Tuesday, was needed to oversee and ensure the suitability of items imported into the country.

She told the House: “We have a tradition. We have had medicines and products that have come into the normal usage of Barbadians that, within months and years, were banned in many other jurisdictions, and one day you would go to find something on the shelf, and you won’t find it; someone will say: ‘No, they stopped selling that for that purpose.’ Or, you would have another interesting encounter, which is that you would pick up a product and it would say ‘for export only’ and you would think: ‘I beg your pardon. So you’re trying to tell me that you’re not going to use this for the purpose that you intended in the place that you make it, but you’ll export it for us poor fools to consume it because it is banned in your jurisdiction, but you don’t mind if it is used by other people in other jurisdictions.’