According to CBS News, a class action lawsuit was filed Thursday, March 19, 2015 against over two dozen California winemakers, accusing them of producing wine with high levels of arsenic.
The wines, which include the popular Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw, White Zinfandel, better known as “Two Buck Chuck,” Menage a Trois Moscato and Franzia White Grenache, had arsenic levels more than three, four and fives times the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for drinking water, respectively.
A former wine distributor who created the company BeverageGrades, tested and analyzed over 1,300 bottles of wines. The study found that about one-quarter of them had higher levels of arsenic that exceeded the EPA’s standards for drinking water, which is 10 parts per billion (ppb).
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There’s a fair amount of evidence that a glass of wine can help promote heart health in some people. But if the allegations of this lawsuit prove true, it should be a warning to regular wine drinkers that frequent glasses of an arsenic-heavy wine may hurt your health over the long term.
Arsenic is an odorless, colorless and highly toxic poison known to cause illness and death when ingested. Some of the long-term health effects of arsenic exposure include various types of cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, medical experts say.
Some of the wines listed on the suit are:
– Beringer (White Merlot, White Zinfandel, Red Moscato, Refreshingly Sweet Moscato).
— Charles Shaw (White Zinfandel).
— Glen Ellen by Concannon (Glen Ellen Reserve Pinot Grigio, Glen Ellen Reserve Merlot).
— Cook’s (Spumante).
— Cupcake (Malbec).
— Franzia (Vintner Select White Grenache, Vintner Select White Zinfandel, Vintner Select White Merlot, Vintner Select Burgundy).
— HRM Rex Goliath (Moscato).
— Korbel (Sweet Rose Sparkling Wine, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine).
— Menage A Trois (Pinot Grigo, Moscato, White Blend, Chardonnay, Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon, California Red Wine).
— Mogen David (Concord, Blackberry Wine).
— Oak Leaf (White Zinfandel).
— Richards Wild Irish Rose (Red Wine).
— Simply Naked (Moscato).
— Sutter Home (Sauvignon Blanc, Gerwurztraminer, Pink Moscato, Pinot Grigio, Moscato, Chenin Blanc, Sweet Red, Riesling, White Merlot, Merlot, White Zinfandel).
Of the two forms of arsenic, organic and inorganic, the inorganic version is…
accepted to be hundreds of times more toxic, scientists say. The arsenic in the defendant wines is the inorganic type, according to the lawsuit.
Adverse health effects can include skin damage and various cancers of the skin, liver, bladder and lung. Still, Stanton acknowledged that while too much arsenic in water has been shown to damage health, there aren’t very many studies demonstrating the effects of arsenic in wine.
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