Arsenic in wine from California, claims lawsuit

Arsenic in wine? A wine industry group called the arsenic lawsuit "irresponsible." Three independent laboratories found that in some cases arsenic levels in California wine were 500 percent higher than what's considered safe.

Dozens of bottles of low-priced California wines sold under such labels as Franzia, Mogen David and Almaden contain dangerously high levels of arsenic, according to a lawsuit filed by four California residents.

The industry group Wine Institute dismissed the lawsuit as "irresponsible," adding it has not called for any vintner to pull any of the wines named in the complaint from store shelves.

The complaint, which seeks class-action status, was filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. It lists as defendants 28 California wineries. It also asks for unspecified damages and a halt to production of arsenic-tainted wine.

"We believe this allegation is false and misleading and that all wines being sold in the U.S. marketplace are safe," the institute, which represents more than 1,000 California vintners and related businesses, said in a statement.

Institute spokeswoman Gladys Horiuchi said Friday that although the United States doesn't have specific arsenic levels for wine, many other countries do. She added that California vintages have never come close to exceeding those levels.

According to the lawsuit, tests by three independent laboratories found that in some cases arsenic levels were 500 percent higher than what's considered safe. Horiuchi said those comparisons were based on levels considered safe for drinking water, not wine.

The lawsuit's lead attorney, Brian Kabateck, said the levels were originally found in tests done by the head of the Denver-based lab BeverageGrades.

"He decided to test 1,306 bottles of wine representing more than 75 percent of the wine consumed in the U.S." Kabateck said Friday. "Out of those he found 83 that had excessive arsenic levels."

The attorney added that subsequent cross-testing at two other labs confirmed the findings.

Arsenic occurs naturally in the air, soil and water in small amounts, as well as in wine and other beverages. In larger amounts, it can be deadly.

Kabateck said tests showed the arsenic found was "inorganic" or not naturally occurring. He said it might have been introduced in the vinting process. He noted nearly all of the affected wines sell for between $5 and $10 a bottle.

"Out of 1,306 tests only 83 came back," he said. "We know that the vast majority of the wine business is safe. If you're spending $20 on a bottle of wine you're not going to have concerns most likely."

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Arsenic in wine from California, claims lawsuit
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0321/Arsenic-in-wine-from-California-claims-lawsuit
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe