Posted on 03/19/2015 9:18:05 AM PDT by CedarDave
A lawsuit is expected to be filed in California today over the amount of arsenic in some of the best-selling wines in the country.
CBS News reports laboratory testing by Denver's BeverageGrades found some wines have as much as time times the maximum level of arsenic the Environmental Protection Agency allows for drinking water. The EPA doesn't regulate wine as it does water, and there are no federal labeling requirements to disclose what's in wine.
(Excerpt) Read more at bizjournals.com ...
Now the facts -
*Arsenic is a micro-nutrient which in organic form is present in many foods. The inorganic form found in drinking water becomes toxic (like many metals) at high doses. The article and CBS report didn't indicate what form the arsenic in wine took.
*The drinking water standard was lowered from 50 ppb to 10 ppb following much debate from 2001 to 2005. Many small water systems, including those in NM where groundwater is pumped from volcanic source rocks, have naturally occurring levels between 10 and 50 ppb. The increased cost of treatment to remove arsenic was a big factor in the delay.
*The arsenic standard in water is based on an adult person weighing 70 kg (154 lbs) drinking two (2) liters of water every day for their lifetime.
*Drinking two liters of wine every day with or without a level of arsenic between 10 and 50 ppb will cause much greater health effects than caused by arsenic alone.
*The California lawyers who are suing the wine industry have interests other than wine drinkers in the forefront. Anyone guess what those might be?
That much?!? We're doomed!
CBS News reports laboratory testing by Denver's BeverageGrades found some wines have as much as four and five times the maximum level of arsenic the Environmental Protection Agency allows for drinking water.
Better start making your own wine.
*The California lawyers who are suing the wine industry have interests other than wine drinkers in the forefront. Anyone guess what those might be?
Dave, do have any documentation re who are paying the lawyers?
I suppose someone needs to point out that wine is not drinking water so if you’re drinking wine in the same amount that most people drink water then, yes, your arsenic exposure could be an issue.
But your alcoholism and liver damage should be a bigger concern.
Unless you are downing more than ten bottles of wine a day, I doubt there is any cause for alarm.
... some wines have as much as five times the maximum level of arsenic ...
My change was from the CBS story.
Thanks.
A lot of the foods we eat have arsenic in them, at the parts per billion level. Instead of becoming healthier if we banned all that food, we would more likely starve. Unfortunately, people don’t understand the scale of the exposure levels very well, and reporters generally obscure that so it is impossible to make a reasonable judgement.
Is it elderberry wine?
Thanks for the excellent link.
Interesting concept that I hadn't heard of before, but it certainly fits here:
[Theorist Samuel T.] Francis argued that this system oversees "the managed destruction of such relationships of civil society as property, patterns of association, education, and employment."
>> That much?!? We're doomed!
My doctor, Dr. Smith, says we are as doomed as doomed can be.
The CBS interview says the testing lab contacted them. The interview named the lawyer filing the lawsuit but didn't put his name or the law firm on the video.
Holding wine standards to that of water standards is ridiculous.
If I drank 16 ounces of wine a day, about two big glasses, that is 0.47 liters. Which is less than a fourth of the 2 liters of water on which the water standard is based on.
And CA wine contains 4 times as much arsenic as water?
This lawsuit is dead before it gets to court.
What the hell does that mean?
FMCDH(BITS)
Effective immediately I’m cutting back to 1 liter per day. :-)
You realize you’re paying 50 cents to a dollar more for a dozen eggs because of a California lawsuit like this, don’t you?
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