I was basing it on at least one case of vitamin D poisoning where a worried mother fearful of rickets had dosed her children with high levels.

Vitamin D is, like some other fat based, and as such it can build up in the body to toxic levels. I'd also point out that quite a small vitamin excess has be accused of causing problems.

Alpha D3 is a extremely potent form of Vitamin D, helps folks with osteoporosis, I bet you could OD, if you over did that?

How much vitamin D do you think you get if you spend every day at the beach for a couple of weeks?

Obviously don't give children mega-doses of anything.

Not sure Nor could I measure it, I would guess though that it is more possible to overdose if you had this exposure everyday and take something like Alpha D3.

It probably is, as you say, quite difficult to overdose on it, but I bet people do.

Well let's just step back here. I'm not saying that an OD of every vitamin causes instant and agonising death. It's effectively impossible to poison yourself with B & C because these are water soluable vits, and are flushed out of the body with great speed.

A;D; & E are all fat soluable, and there is clear evidence that it is possible to poison yourself with fat soluable vits, even if it does require a bit of effort.

The point I am trying to make here is that the average person in the west has absolutely no need to take vitamins, there is evidence that even small regular overdoses can cause health problems, so based on that alone, why in god's name would anyone rational ever take them again?

Ah yes, of course the word is 'rational' Were people rational, there would be a whole lot less problems in the world.

Were people rational, there would be no way you could sell them 'balanced' vitamins, because anyone can see (if they actually think) that the minute you took them your 'vitamin content' would instantly be unbalanced.