Fish Oil Lawsuit 2010

Another reason to use good quality company for your Fish oil. It doesn’t pay to find the cheapest vitie products. You wouldn’t shop for cheapest heart surgeon for a loved one would you?

March 2010- An environmental group filed a lawsuit in San Francisco on Tuesday alleging that 10 types of fish oil or shark oil supplements contain a toxic industrial compound, and that manufacturers and sellers need to warn consumers.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by the Oregon group Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation and two individuals, claims that under California’s Proposition 65, the makers and sellers of fish oil supplements are required to tell consumers that the pills contain the compound polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB.

Fish oil has become an increasingly popular supplement because it has high levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D.

More than 100 brands of fish oil are available. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit tested 10 products, all of which had some amount of PCB, they say. They found wide ranges in PCB levels, but because scientists haven’t agreed on a safe level of consumption, consumers should be made aware of potentially toxic compounds in their supplements no matter what the amount, said David Roe, attorney for the plaintiffs.

“People buy fish oil to improve their health,” Roe said Tuesday in a teleconference with reporters. “We have no way of knowing if all of the other fish oil products have PCB, too.”

The lawsuit names CVS/Pharmacy, General Nutrition Corp. (GNC stores), Now Health Group, Omega Protein, Rite Aid, Solgar, Twinlab and Pharmavite, which produces Nature Made supplements, as defendants.

Representative of those companies said they wouldn’t comment because they hadn’t seen the lawsuit.

PCBs were once used to insulate transformers and capacitors, but were banned more than 30 years ago. They are still found in San Francisco Bay and other waterways, where they are consumed by fish.

Most people don’t eat enough fish to risk serious exposure to PCBs, Roe said, but because people generally take fish oil supplements every day, they can potentially consume harmful levels of the chemical.

PCBs can cause cancer, reproductive problems and damage to the nervous system, environmental scientists have said.

A list of products named in the PCB lawsuit.

Fish oil

The products named in the PCB lawsuit are:

— GNC Liquid Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

— Nature Made Cod Liver Oil

— Nature Made Odorless Fish Oil

— Now Foods Double Strength Cod Liver Oil

— Now Foods Salmon Oil

— Now Foods Shark Liver Oil

— Solgar 100 percent pure Norwegian Shark Liver Oil Complex

— Solgar Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

— Twinlab Emulsified Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

— Twinlab Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

Adjust2it's Blog