Don’t Drink This Tea

The East West Tea Company voluntarily recalled 900,000 tea bags over concerns that the tea was laced with a dangerously high amount of pesticides.

The company’s Organic Yogi Echinacea Immune Support tea was voluntarily recalled “because pesticide residues were detected above action levels,” the FDA said. The tea was distributed nationwide. The recall was initiated on March 12 and is ongoing.

The recall is considered a Class III recall, which the FDA says means that it’s “a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.”

Pesticides in Tea

The EPA approves widespread pesticides use to control pests like insects and rodents, as well as corp-threateners like weeds, bacteria, mold, and fungus. However, substances that are harmful to rodents and insects are harmful to people as well. At certain levels, they impact the nervous system, or irritate your skin or eyes. Some are also carcinogens (cancer-causing agents), or may impact your hormones, reproductive, or endocrine system.

Another federal agency, the FDA, supposedly ensures that the chemicals in pesticides are strong enough to kill pests but not strong enough to affect human health. A monitoring program theoretically ensures that pesticide residues in consumer products don’t exceed certain levels.

According to the FDA, this monitoring program examines more than 4,000 food samples a year “using a multi-residue method that analyzes approximately 800 different pesticide chemical residues in a single analysis and selective residue methods that detect pesticide chemical residues not covered by the multi-residue method.” Considering the variety of foods available and the vast number of chemical pesticides, these sample sizes aren’t very large.

At this point, no one knows how these pesticides got into these tea bags. Furthermore, no one knows how bureaucrats discovered the problem. The source was probably a chemical test or a whistleblower. These questions will probably never be answered. That’s one of the problems with a product recall. Once a manufacturer voluntarily recalls a dangerous product, investigators usually stop digging.

The best way to avoid pesticides in food is to choose organic products. These products aren’t completely pesticide free, and “organic” is sometimes a marketing phrase. The tea the subject of this recall was “organic” tea. But this designation usually means the food was grown and processed without using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

Rappels de la FDA

We mentioned one issue with FDA recalls above. Others include the source of a recall and the scope of a recall.

The FDA cannot unilaterally recall tainted products. Occasionally, lawmakers introduce bills that would give the FDA this power. Big food and its political allies immediately kill these proposals. The FDA can require additional warning labels. But once the company amends the label, it can keep selling the product.

Product recalls don’t compensate defective product victims for their injuries. Only a skilled lawyer can do that.

Votre demande de dommages et intérêts

Defective product injury victims usually have several legal options, such as negligent failure to warn, strict liability, or public nuisance.

Most defective product claims are negligence failure to warn claims. Negligence is basically a lack of care. The duty of care requires companies to warn people about all known possible side-effects. If a failure to warn causes injury, a product liability lawyer can obtain substantial compensation in court. 

This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages may be available as well, if the victim presents clear and convincing evidence that the defendant intentionally disregarded a known risk.

Defective product injury claims are good news/bad news claims. The good news is that companies are strictly liable for damages. Victim’s don’t have to prove negligence. The bad news is that cause is usually harder to prove in these cases, especially because defendants rely on “expert” witnesses who testify that dangerous substances are as safe as mother’s milk.

Dangerous consumer products are probably for sale in stores near you. For a free consultation with an experienced lawyer in New York, contact Napoli Shkolnik. We handle these claims on a nationwide basis.