Supplements
Articles
Fish Oils and PCBs: The Cost of Cutting Corners
Lawsuit finds cheap fish oils contain dangerous contaminants
by Charles Poliquin
“You only pay for quality once!” is a popular advertising slogan, and with the recent ligation against 10 major manufacturers of fish oils, it’s more relevant than ever.
According to recent estimates, sales of omega-3 enhanced foods will increase from $4.6 billion in 2007 to an estimated $8.2 billion by 2012, and omega-3 supplement sales are currently about $1 billion a year. But if you’ve been out of the media loop recently, then you may not have heard about the recent lawsuit filed against 10 of the largest (note that I didn’t say “best”) manufacturers of fish oil in the country. How big? We’re talking companies that sell through such major distributors as Rite Aid and GNC.
The issue is not the quality of the fish oil but the contaminants that independent lab tests found in these products. Most notably, PCBs.
PCB stands for – you guessed it – polychlorinated biphenyl, which refers to toxic mixtures of numerous chemical compounds. PCBs have had many uses, such as acting as lubricants and coolants, but in 1979 their use was banned in the US by Congress because of harmful health effects associated with them, including links to cancer.
Of special interest to women who are pregnant are the effects that their exposure to PCBs can have on fetuses – and the studies keep coming. Just last year three studies were published on this subject in separate online publications by the University of California at Davis. These studies confirmed that exposures to low levels of PCBs may contribute to neurological disorders in children such as autism, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities. Bottom line: PCBs are bad, very bad.
Here Comes the Judge
The lawsuit was filed on February 26, 2010, under the jurisdiction of the Superior Court of the State of California. The plaintiffs include environmentalists Chris Manthey and Benson Chiles and the nonprofit environmental protection organization Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation. The defendants are six manufacturers of fish oil supplements and two drug store chains, as follows:
CVS Pharmacy, Inc.
General Nutrition Corporation
NOW Health Group, Inc.
Omega Protein, Inc.
Pharmavite LLC
Rite Aid Corporation
Solgar, Inc.
Twinlab Corporation
The basis of the complaint is that the defendants failed to inform the consumers of their products “that ingestion of these products causes those residents to be exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls.” In California, this legal obligation falls under Proposition 65, a right-to-know law that any citizen can enforce (and I should mention that David Roe, an attorney at one of the law firms that filed this lawsuit, was involved in the creation of Prop 65). Regarding the financial relief possible from this lawsuit, the penalty for each violation of Prop 65 is up to $2,500 per day, so if one million people in California are taking these products, then in a single day the damages could total $2,500 times one million (by the way, the plaintiffs would receive only a quarter of the total that might be awarded; the balance would go to the State).
The plaintiffs had the 10 products tested for carcinogens (which are compounds known to cause cancer) and also reproductive toxins. The results show that although some of the products were below the warning level for carcinogens, they were not for reproductive toxins. At a cost of about $1,000 per test performed by several laboratories according to EPA protocols, the following products were tested for 209 compounds and were subsequently cited in the complaint:
• 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
The plaintiffs claim that these companies were notified of the testing six months before the complaint was filed. To be fair, the lawsuit was just released, and as such it has been difficult for the defendants to examine the data and make an informed response. However, representatives from Pharmavite LLC, one of the manufacturers named in the complaint, did respond that the “magnitude of the science supporting the benefits of consumption of fish oil far outweighs the results of this extremely limited investigation.”
Through our website we will keep our customers informed of how this story develops.
Why You Can Trust Poliquin Supplements
It’s important to understand that fish oil is one of the most important supplements you can take, with benefits that range from improving cardiovascular health to helping you lose weight. The problem is that to cut costs, manufacturers of these products may compromise on quality – which is obvious from the results of the independent testing cited in this lawsuit.
First, our company uses only small “bottom of the food chain” fish, so they have very low toxins and metals to begin with and our oil processing is done in a leading Norwegian pharmaceutically licensed facility. We use an approved and FDA inspected facility, and our testing protocol exceeds the standard by the FDA and GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices guidelines for supplements).
With Poliquin fish oil products, the oil itself goes through many expensive, quality-control steps. The oil is produced according to pharmaceutical protocols with full traceability, quality assurance, and control.The short version of this is that we test for 220 pesticides, six heavy metals, seven markers of PCBs, 15 dioxins and furans, and 12 dioxin-like PCBs. Here is a brief explanation from our manufacturer just for testing the raw material (before we even encapsulate and do more testing):
“Raw material must pass QC testing, then goes to degumming and QC again, then through molecular distillation I and more QC, then ethanolisys and QC again, then molecular distillation II and QC again, then through cold filtration and QC again, then through bleaching (which isn’t literally bleach; it’s essentially forcing it through special clay as another filtration process) and QC again, then through deodorizing and QC again. At any one of these QC steps, the oil can be rejected and returned to the previous step or discarded if unacceptable.”
An assay is an analysis of a substance to determine its contents, and this is an especially important test to perform on fish oils. For example, mercury is a metal that can damage the brain, kidneys and endocrine system. Birth defects are often attributed to mercury exposure during pregnancy, affecting the brains of developing fetuses. Excessive or long-term exposure to mercury can be lethal to individuals of any age. To eliminate the possibility of problems such as this is why we selected Eurofins as our assay lab.
Eurofins is the gold standard of purity and testing, and we use the only internationally recognized quality standards: we exceed the rigorous standards of the International Pharmacopeia and we far exceed the quality standards set forth in the EU CRN monograph. Assays are performed on every batch. Here is a partial list of the tests that must be passed:
Metals: lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, iron
Pesticides: aldrin, dieldrin, endrine, total chlordane, chlorathalonil, 2 DDTs, DDE, 2 DODs, total endosulfane, alpha HCH, beta HCH, delta HCH, total HCH isomers, lindane, keptachlor, ols-Heptachloroepoxide, trans-Heptachloroepoxide, Hexachlorobenzene, Mirex, ipradione, procymidone, vinclazalin, chlorpyrifos-methyl, dichlorvos, ethion, toraphene congeners, seven PCBs
Our manufacturers also test for rancidity through peroxide and anisidine values (both must be used for a true measure—anisidine testing is not done by most companies). For the toxins and metals, we test to the limits of detection—parts per trillion (as with PCBs), parts per billion, sometimes parts per million; it all depends on what’s being tested and testing capability—and of course, fatty acid composition to surpass label claims. And after we’ve done all that, the softgels still have to pass the dissolution testing based on USP guidelines (30 minutes to breakdown). At any point, the oil/product can be rejected, and we reject batches anytime tests are failed. Finally, we also use a patented antioxidant formula added to the oil to protect the oil from rancidity.
Judging by the amount of fish oil products consumed by Americans, the message is out about how important these valuable supplements are to both health and athletic performance. But just keep in mind, with our fish oils you get the best and safest product available – and you only pay for quality once!
To view all Poliquin Fish Oil Supplements, please visit our store.