ARSENIC LAWSUIT TOSSED OUT

CALIFORNIA’S WINE INDUSTRY has won a big fight without even entering the ring. A judge dismissed a lawsuit claiming that some wines have dangerously high levels of arsenic. The class-action suit said that 83 cheap, mass-production Califorina wines had arsenic levels higher than those allowed in the state for water. But there is no standard for arsenic in wine in the US, and the levels cited in the lawsuit were half of those considered acceptable in Ontario, Canada, which has some of the most rigorous wine standards in the world. Five of California’s six largest wine producers were defendants in the suit.  In a statement, the Wine Institute called the lawsuit “meritless” and said, “The FDA has been monitoring the arsenic content in food and beverages for more than 2O years. Arsenic is naturally occurring in the environment in air, soil and water, and is present in virtually all foods and beverages.” When the suit was filed in March 2O15, it was picked up by most major news outlets, on television, online, and print. It seemed to have the potential for great damage to wine’s image at a time when 2O years of sales growth had suddenly slowed nearly to a halt. But in the year since the lawsuit, wine sales rose 2.5 percent, the fastest rate since 2O12, according to Nielsen.

An appeal is highly probable. “Defendants did not deny that their wines contain arsenic. They argued, however, that the existing warning satisfied California law even though it does not mention arsenic,” a release from the plaintiffs stated. “. . . we plan to continue fighting to protect consumers and ensure that they get accurate information about the wine they’re consuming.” But according to Stephen Cater, director of quality assurance for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the LCBO laboratory has tested more than 11,9OO wines over the last year for arsenic levels, including 1543 wines from California. All of the wines from California that the LCBO lab tested and subsequently offered for sale were below the maximum allowable limit for arsenic. They have not observed elevated arsenic levels in US wines compared to what is found in wines from other regions and countries.