Lawsuit: Disclose PCB Levels in Fish Oil

(CBS)  A lawsuit brought by environmentalists in California claims popular brands of fish oil dietary supplements contain unsafe and illegal levels of the carcinogenic chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco, targets eight supplement manufacturers or distributors - CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, General Nutrition Corp., Solgar, Twinlab, Now Health, Omega Protein and Pharmavite - for alleged violations of California's Proposition 65, which requires that consumers be warned about chemical exposures.

The plaintiffs are two citizen environmentalists and the Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation. Their initial testing found that levels of PCBs in supplements in popular fish oil products varied wildly, from about 12 nanograms per recommended dose in the best performer to more than 850 nanograms in the worst performer - a factor of 70.

But the suit claims that all of the manufacturers are in violation of Proposition 65 for not disclosing any non-zero PCB levels in their products.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys claim that that labels saying "Screened for PCBs" or "Treated to Remove PCBs" are especially problematic, because those labels imply - falsely - that PCBs have been removed entirely. They also believe that the manufacturers already have extensive data on the amount of PCBs present in their product.

Even the companies boasting the lowest contaminant levels have no incentive to release their data unless their competitors are forced to do so as well.

PCBs were officially listed as known carcinogens and known reproductive toxins in California two decades ago, making them subject to the California's warning requirement.

Still, a representative from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, speaking to CBS News, pointed out two 2008 reports that found no unsafe levels of dioxin, mercury or PCBs in a wide array of products - one from Consumer Reports and another from the well-regarded supplement testing publication ConsumerLab.

[Funky-President]

Yes but what the heck was in our Mail?

PUBLISHED SEPT 4, 2001.


nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/04GERM.html ?pagewanted=all

"The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were begun under President Clinton and have been embraced by the Bush administration, which intends to expand them.

Earlier this year, administration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to engineer genetically a potentially more potent variant of the bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease ideal for germ warfare."

"A published account of the experiment, which appeared in a scientific journal in late 1997, alarmed the Pentagon, which had just decided to require that American soldiers be vaccinated against anthrax. American officials tried to obtain a sample from Russia through a scientific exchange program to see whether the Russians had really created such a hybrid. The Americans also wanted to test whether the microbe could defeat the American vaccine, which is different from that used by Russia.

Despite repeated promises, the bacteria were never provided.

Eventually the C.I.A. drew up plans to replicate the strain, but intelligence officials said the agency hesitated because there was no specific report that an adversary was attempting to turn the superbug into a weapon.

This year, officials said, the project was taken over by the Pentagon's intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency. Pentagon lawyers reviewed the proposal and said it complied with the treaty. Officials said the research would be part of Project Jefferson, yet another government effort to track the dangers posed by germ weapons.

A spokesman for Defense Intelligence, Lt. Cmdr. James Brooks, declined comment. Asked about the precautions at Battelle, which is to create the enhanced anthrax, Commander Brooks said security was "entirely suitable for all work already conducted and planned for Project Jefferson."

[mjlewis6]

Transformers are no longer made with PCB, thank you. However, the multiple spills, exploded electrical equipment over the previous decades...is still in the environment. The stuff does NOT break down.
No telling how many contaminated patches of ground are still there in
the community...and ground water just carries it along out to lakes, streams and the sea.

[Doug_in_TO]

This shouldn't come as a surprise considering the warnings not to eat too much tuna, etc...

But, there are a bunch of companies who realize that fatty fish are a perfect receptacle for the chemicals we dump in the ocean.

As a result, the choose to catch fish lower on the food chain and then they process the oil to remove impurities.

These companies also submit to 3rd party testing to prove to the general public that they are doing what they say they are doing

Companies like Ascenta and Nordic naturals

For more info

http://www.healthhabits.ca/2008/05/29/pregnant-mothers-intake-of-omega-3-key-to-babies-big-brains/

[ckitze]

Mateel has just found a way to gain new found riches -- apparently the Prop 65 lead mine has dried up from suing wine glass manufacturers and retailers because the glasses contained lead. They'll push this along for the next year or two and settle for a few million total that will be donated to a left-wing enviro group in Mendocino.

None of the chemicals will come out of the fish oil...mainly because these levels are in NANO grams (billionths of a gram). But you will have a few enviro groups get $2 million and a very small fine print label added to the packaging that no one will be able to read. The fish oil will still have PCBs because the oceans all have this level of PCB's. You get as much exposure to PCBs walking under a utility pole transformer.

[ibsteve2u]

Ahhh, capitalism....what is tomorrow's market, when you can get rich selling toxins today?

After all, tomorrow is somebody else's problem...

[newsworthy8]

And, I am eating your junk...oh..let's have a recall