The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

A California attorney recently decided to file a lawsuit claiming that 10 different types of fish oil supplements contain industrial chemicals banned in 1979, and the companies who make and sell the supplements have not effectively notified people.

Chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyl compounds, or PBCs, were claimed by the lawyer’s suit to be found in supplements sold by CVS and Rite-Aid drugstore, and in supplements made by Houston, Tx.-based Omega Protein Inc. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Omega Protein claims to be the world’s largest producer of fish oil supplements.

David Roe filed the lawsuit in San Francisco citing Proposition 65, a law he helped write, reports the San Jose Mercury News.The law requires product labels to clearly state if an item contains toxic ingredients above regulatory safe levels.

Roe told the Mercury News that some of the tested supplements exceed the limit for PCBs by 10 times for cancer risk, as established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A limit on PCBs with regard to birth defects has not been established.

Benson Chiles, director of the New Jersey-based Coastal Ocean Coalition, is serving as a co-plaintiff on the suit and said that buyers need to be wary of what may be in the supplements.

Other companies named as defendants in the suit include Twinlab, GNC stores, Now Health Group, Solgar, and Pharmavite, which produces Nature Made supplements.

Two manufacturers were quick to respond to the lawsuit by saying their products are indeed safe for consumption.

Representatives of Twinlab and Pharmavite told the Mercury News that they distill their fish oil products to remove impurities and that any levels of PCBs are within government guidelines.

“PCBs are ubiquitous within the environment, which means that all fish - whether fish found in oceans and rivers or fish oil supplements - contain at least trace amounts of PCBs,” Erin Hlasney with the Council for Responsible Nutrition told the Mercury News. “The lawyers are using California’s Prop. 65 statute to bring attention to their case by attempting to frame this as a public health concern, when in reality, fish oil has enjoyed decades of safe use.”

The main crux of the suit is to simply make it known to consumers purchasing for health benefits that the supplements could carry a health risk, Roe told the San Francisco Chronicle.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.