A recent study funded by the National Toxicology Program and conducted by researchers with the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research has reportedly found no evidence linking low doses of bisphenol A (BPA) to adverse estrogenic effects in an animal model. K. Barry Delclos, et al., “Toxicity Evaluation of Bisphenol A Administered by Gavage to Sprague Dawley Rats From Gestation Day 6 Through Postnatal Day 90,” Toxicological Sciences, February 2014. To examine the effects of BPA on Sprague Dawley rats shown to be sensitive to estrogenic compounds, scientists administered the substance to rat dams from the sixth day of gestation through labor and to their pups from the first day after birth through postnatal day 90. These rats received either a low dose of BPA (2.5-2700 µg/kg bw/day) or a high dose (100,000 and 300,000 µg/kg bw/day), with the lower dose reportedly corresponding to approximately 70,000 times the…
Category Archives Issue 515
A new study has concluded that advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs), which occur in heat-processed meat and animal products, can cause brain changes similar to those found in Alzheimer’s disease or metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic state. Weijing Cai, et al., “Oral glycotoxins are a modifiable cause of dementia and the metabolic syndrome in mice and humans,” PNAS, February 2014. Led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the study reportedly used a mouse model to show that consuming AGE-rich foods “raised the body’s level of AGEs, which, among other effects, suppressed levels of sirtuin, or SIRT1, a key ‘host defense’ shown to protect against Alzheimer’s disease as well as metabolic syndrome.” The study’s authors noted that mice fed a high-AGE diet not only exhibited high levels of AGE in their brains and low levels of SIRT1 in their blood and brain tissue, but also developed cognitive and…
Johns Hopkins Public Health, a magazine of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, has devoted a special issue to food topics and includes an article about Health Policy and Management Professor Stephen Teret, who founded the Johns Hopkins Clinic for Public Health Law and Policy and recently engaged law students in a project addressing caffeinated foods. His students reportedly explained to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy Michael Taylor that the agency should be focusing on this issue. While Teret was apparently not concerned initially about any purported health effects of caffeine, he suspected that consumers might eat more waffles than normal if they started “feeling really good from the waffles because of the caffeine.” In this regard, he said, “It’s the sugar for some of these products or the salt or the fat that will ultimately give you health problems, not the caffeine, but,…
George Washington University Law Professor John Banzhaf, who is known for his anti-tobacco advocacy, contends that recent court rulings involving food company defendants facing consumer-fraud and product-mislabeling allegations have opened “the door even further to a growing wave of such suits.” He argues that class action lawsuits over labeling terms such as “natural” and “all natural” will lead to increased transparency in food advertising and a reduction in obesity. He also claims that The American Lawyer attributed this exploding wave of litigation to “the movement started by Prof. John Banzhaf several years ago to use legal action as a weapon against the problem of obesity, just as he had earlier done in leading the use of legal action as a weapon against smoking.” See John Banzhaf News Release, February 27, 2014. Issue 515
New York Times op-ed writer Mark Bittman, who frequently writes about food-related issues and calls for changes in government policy to address over- or unhealthy-consumption problems, has found an ally in City University of New York School of Public Health Professor Nicholas Freudenberg who has authored a new book titled Lethal but Legal: Corporations, Consumption, and Protecting Public Health. Freudenberg, who serves as faculty director for the New York City Food Policy Center, apparently explains how the food and beverage, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries have used the playbook created by “the corporate consumption complex” of corporations, banks, marketers, and others that purportedly promote and benefit from unhealthy lifestyles. Freudenberg takes issue with what he perceives as their message that anything restricting rights “to smoke, feed our children junk, carry handguns and so on” is un-American. According to Bittman, Freudenberg’s grouping of these industries “gives us a better…
A three-attorney, Pasadena, California-based law firm has filed numerous 60-day notice letters since March 2013 to companies that make alcoholic beverages, warning that they have failed to comply with a section of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65) by selling without the required warnings (i) “alcoholic beverages, when associated with alcohol abuse,” (ii) “ethyl alcohol in alcoholic beverages,” and (iii) “ethanol in alcoholic beverages.” The letters, filed on behalf of John Bonilla, Rafael Delgado, Jesse Garrett, and Rachel Padilla, assert that the companies have sold their products in the state without first indicating to consumers under “Title 27, CCR § 25603(e)(1): ‘WARNING: Drinking Distilled Spirits, Beer, Coolers, Wine and Other Alcoholic Beverages May Increase Cancer Risk, and, During Pregnancy, Can Cause Birth Defects.’” According to a news source, four individuals have filed Prop. 65 violation lawsuits in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging…
A California appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) lawsuits filed against fast-food restaurants by the vegetarian and animal-rights advocacy organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), finding that the organization failed to conduct the requisite investigation into the warning signs posted in the defendants’ restaurants before certifying the merit of its 60-day notices to the companies, attorney general and local prosecuting entities. PCRM v. Applebee’s Int’l, Inc., No. B243908 (Cal. Ct. App., decided February 27, 2014). At issue were warnings about the chemical PhIP, known to the state to cause cancer, created during the chicken grilling process. Details about the lower court’s ruling appear in Issue 450 of this Update. Reciting the lengthy litigation history, which involved a number of amended complaints, the court emphasized the statements that the plaintiff’s counsel made during hearings on demurrers to the pleadings and deemed them binding admissions that…
According to a news source, the plaintiffs and defendants in litigation over a respiratory condition allegedly caused by the daily consumption of microwave popcorn containing the butter-flavoring compound diacetyl have settled the claims following a court’s reduction of the jury’s $7-million verdict to $5.78 million, including fees and costs. Watson v. Dillon Cos., Inc., No. 08-91 (D. Colo.). Additional details about the litigation appear in Issue 497 of this Update. Plaintiffs’ counsel Ken McClain reportedly indicated that the settlement terms were confidential. See Law360, February 24, 2014. Issue 515
A federal court in New York has refused to dismiss claims alleging that Bumble Bee Foods is strictly liable for and was negligent in failing to warn about the mercury in its products in a lawsuit alleging personal injury from excessive consumption of the company’s tuna products, which contain methylmercury. Porrazzo v. Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, No. 10-4367 (S.D.N.Y., order entered February 27, 2014). An earlier ruling in the case is summarized in Issue 413 of this Update. The plaintiff, who apparently consumed one to two cans of tuna daily for more than two years and was diagnosed with dangerously high levels of mercury in his body, also brought claims for breach of implied warranty of merchantability and violations of certain state statutory provisions involving agricultural and business law. The court found that the issues argued in Bumble Bee’s motion for summary judgment involved genuine issues of material fact that…
A federal court in New York has denied the motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant in litigation alleging that it mislabeled its industrially processed olive-pomace oil as “100% Pure Olive Oil.” Ebin v. Kangadis Food Inc. d/b/a The Gourmet Factory, No. 13-2311 (S.D.N.Y., order entered February 25, 2014). Details about the court’s grant of the plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class appear in Issue 507 of this Update. The court rejected, again, the defendant’s argument that its Capatriti olive-pomace oil is, as a matter of law, olive oil. According to the court, “there exists more than sufficient evidence for a trier of fact to determine that Capatriti is not 100% pure olive oil. Capatriti has more trans-fat and fewer antioxidants than virgin olive oil, is tasteless, is made from the seed and skin rather than the flesh of the olive, and undergoes chemical treatment with solvents, rather than a…
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