Litigation

Herbalife products contain unsafe levels of lead

By Tracy Coenen

?The Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) products that were analyzed contain levels of lead that are in excess of what the law allows under California’s Safe Drinking and Toxic Environment Act of 1994 more commonly known as Prop. 65,? says lawyer and dietary supplement and Prop. 65 expert Christopher Grell in a letter to the Fraud Discovery Institute now posted on the FDI web site.

He later adds: ?Since Herbalife’s products are often times sold as a Weight Loss Program, containing many of the Dietary Supplements that were analyzed, a warning should be placed on all Herbalife Weight Management Program packages containing these products on the grounds that the cumulative exposure to lead from the daily use of Herbalife’s Weight Management Program supplements exceed the Maximum Acceptable Levels (MADLs) and the No Significant Risk Levels (NSRLs) (see Title 22 Section 12705 California Code of Regulations).?

On April 25th, 2008 the Fraud Discovery Institute announced in a press release that it would begin testing certain Herbalife products. The results of these tests reveal that, among other products, the company?s best selling Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake and Shapeworks Protein Drink Mix, when taken as recommended by Herbalife, contain 8.5 times and 12 times the maximum daily exposure to lead levels. This is especially troubling because Herbalife, a California-based company, faces the toughest scrutiny in the country under the California based Proposition 65.

Also noted in the newly released information is the fact that this is not the first time Herbalife products have come under such scrutiny. After the release of the two separate studies done in two different countries titled, ?Herbal does not mean innocuous: Ten cases of severe hepatotoxicity associated with dietary supplements from Herbalife products” Journal of Hepatology 47 (2007 521-526) and “Association Between Consumption of Herbalife Nutritional Supplements and Acute Hepatotoxicity” Journal of Hepatology (2007 Oct 47(4) 514-520) which are now available on the FDI web site www.frauddiscovery.net, Herbalife asked the public to believe their explanations and excuses over the results of the studies regarding the safety of their product.

?But they cannot do that anymore,? says Barry Minkow, Co-Founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute. ?We simply looked at Table 3 of the Switzerland study and selected the top six Herbalife products that appeared to be linked to the most damage and tested these products at an independent, FDA-registered lab and they all contained level-breaking lead amounts? added Minkow.

The Fraud Discovery Institute then promptly wrote a letter that included the lab test results and a Nutraceutical expert?s legal opinion and sent it to Congressman Henry A. Waxman. Congressman Waxman had warned the FDA in April of 2007 of the dangers of lead in various ?nutritional? products.

?The saddest part of these results, after this third ?alarm? regarding Herbalife product danger, is that this is a clear pattern which is now firmly established. Moreover, Herbalife supervisors and distributors are both encouraged and instructed by the company to diligently consume these dangerous lead levels daily and in mass amounts,? said Minkow. ?This might explain why our legal expert concluded his analysis of the test results by stating: ?Ironically, it is a health and nutrition company that appears to be selling a product that amounts to nothing more than a lead cocktail.??

Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).