ACUPUNCTURE has moved a step closer to medical respectability in the US.
Last week the US Food and Drug Administration announced that it was putting
acupuncture needles in the same category as hypodermic needles, scalpels and
other medical equipment for general use. Previously, acupuncturists had to
subscribe to the legal fiction that their needles were 鈥渇or research purposes
辞苍濒测鈥�.
鈥淚 guess it will not make any difference. Acupuncture needles have been
available for 2000 years,鈥� says FDA spokeswoman Sharon Snyder.
But the change in classification is a moral victory for acupuncturists, who
are still fighting with the medical establishment for recognition. The needles
have been 鈥渋nvestigational devices鈥� since 1976, when the FDA began regulating
them. They were classed with drugs and devices which might be hazardous, and
which could only be used in research.
Advertisement