The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has delivered testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging that highlights examples of deceptive or questionable marketing practices involving certain dietary supplements. GAO also reported that some herbal dietary supplements contained contaminants, including trace amounts of lead. According to GAO Managing Director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations Gregory Kutz, investigators posing as elderly customers asked sales staff at 22 retail establishments a series of questions regarding herbal dietary supplements in addition to reviewing 30 retail websites’ “written marketing language” about the supplements. In several cases that both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission deemed “improper and likely in violation of statutes and regulations,” “written sales materials for products sold through online retailers claimed that herbal dietary supplements could treat, prevent or cure conditions such as diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease.” Improper medical advice was also dispensed by…
Tag Archives mercury
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court’s decision not to allow a flavoring company to file cross claims in litigation between an insurance carrier and the company that supplied vanilla beans tainted with mercury to the flavoring company. The Travelers Ins. Co. v. Dammann & Co., Inc., No. 09-1225 (3d Cir., decided February 5, 2010). The flavoring company sought to hold the vanilla bean supplier liable under contract, tort and indemnification theories, and the district court held that the proposed cross claims were time-barred or failed to state a claim. The Third Circuit agreed. The flavoring company’s request to file cross claims occurred more than four years after it received the vanilla beans, and its breach of warranty claims were thus untimely under the Uniform Commercial Code. Because New Jersey law applied to the case, the appeals court then discussed at length why it believed New…
Noting that Washington, D.C.-based industry lobbyist Rick Berman will be on her MSNBC-TV program during the week of October 5, 2009, Rachel Maddow this week discussed the most recent campaign Berman’s Center for Consumer Freedom has undertaken on behalf of the producers of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Maddow showed viewers the clip of a new TV ad that directs those wanting to know more about how sugar and HFCS are the same to a website that Maddow said was, “brought to you by something called the Center for Consumer Freedom . . . headed by . . . Rick Berman, the D.C. public relations guy who runs these operations as nonprofits so they don’t have to disclose the names of the companies that fund them.” Maddow also said that the center “is not just here to convince you to stop worrying about sugar, they also link to their other sites like…
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear a putative class action lawsuit involving claims that Tri-Union Seafoods LLC fails to warn consumers about mercury concentrations in its canned tuna fish products. Tri-Union Seafoods, L.L.C. v. Fellner, No. 08-889 (U.S., cert. denied April 20, 2009). The plaintiff filed her claims in 2006, alleging that she developed severe mercury poisoning after eating Chicken of the Sea® canned albacore tuna almost exclusively for five years. The district court dismissed the case on federal preemption grounds, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it after finding that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had taken no action about alleged risks posed by mercury in fish and thus, that the lawsuit would not conflict with FDA’s “regulatory scheme.” More information about the Third Circuit’s ruling appears in issue 272 of this Update. At least one legal commentator responded to news about the rejection…
A new study from the Connecticut Department of Health has challenged a recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft assessment weighing the benefits of fish consumption against the risks associated with mercury exposure. Gary L. Ginsberg and Brian F. Toal, “Quantitative Approach for Incorporating Methylmercury Risks and Omega-3 Fatty Acid Benefits in Developing Species-Specific Fish Consumption Advice,” Environmental Health Perspectives, February 2009. FDA had concluded that consumers may derive greater benefits from the lean protein, omega-3 oils and minerals in fish if they exceed the current safety threshold set at 12 ounces of fish per week. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other groups have since criticized this assessment for “serious scientific flaws,” urging consumers to abide by the safety standards currently recommended by both agencies. Meanwhile, the Connecticut Department of Health study has expanded on the FDA study by identifying some fish species, such as swordfish and shark,…
A recent study published in Environmental Health has allegedly identified mercury in nearly 50 percent of sampled commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Renee Dufault, et al., “Mercury From Chlor-Alkali Plants: Measured Concentrations in Food Product Sugar,” Environmental Health, January 2009. The study authors apparently detected mercury in nine of 20 HFCS samples from 2005, concluding that “it may be necessary to account for this source of mercury in the diet of children and sensitive populations.” In addition, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has released a report that claims to have found mercury in one-third of 55 brand-name food and beverage products listing HFCS as the first or second ingredient. Both publications were co-authored by the director of IATP’s Food and Health Program, David Wallinga, who reportedly linked the contamination to mercury-grade caustic soda used to separate corn starch from corn kernels during HFCS production. He speculated that…
FDA this week published a draft assessment weighing the risks and benefits of fish consumption for children and the general population. The assessment considers the net health effects of fish consumption on fetal neurodevelopment, as well as fatal heart disease and stroke risk in the general population. FDA is seeking “to understand the relationship between the risk of not eating fish (and thus losing any health benefits fish may provide) and the risk of eating fish that contains methylmercury at the levels currently found in the commercial fish available to consumers.” The draft concludes that in respect to neurodevelopment, maternal consumption of fish species low in methylmercury “has a significantly greater probability of resulting in a net benefit, as measured by verbal development.” Although results also indicated “a significant probability of a net adverse effect for one-tenth of one percent of children,” the FDA assessment finds that the highest net…
FDA has reportedly sent a draft report to the White House Office of Management and Budget, seeking to reverse the government's recommendation that women of childbearing years, pregnant or nursing mothers, infants, and children limit their fish intake due to possible mercury contamination. The agency has claimed that the positive health effects of omega-3 fatty acids and other beneficial nutrients found in fish outweigh the risks of dietary mercury, which can behave as a neurotoxin during early development. The draft report would update a 2004 joint advisory statement issued by FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warning women and children to avoid four types of fish high in mercury: swordfish, shark, tilefish, and king mackerel. In addition, the federal government advises these consumers to reduce their fish consumption to less than 12 ounces per week, including at most 6 ounces of canned albacore tuna. FDA apparently acted unilaterally in…
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