FDA To Dr. Oz: Apple Juice Is Safe, Despite Arsenic Fears

MSNBC:

The nationally-syndicated "Dr. Oz Show" on Tuesday revealed what it called the results of a comprehensive investigative report on arsenic levels in store-bought apple juice. Their findings? That the arsenic levels in some brands made them unsafe for consumption. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refutes the show's report and says drinking all brands of apple juice is safe.

Read the whole story: MSNBC

Comments

[TheCycad]

12:09 PM on 09/23/2011

with or without arsenic. apple juice has barely any nutritional content, and along with soft drinks has been linked to diabetes.

[marjoriedevine]

11:42 PM on 09/16/2011

Why anyone would give children apple juice to begin with is beyond any nutritional logic. At best it is fruit sugar water, and at worst it is fruit sugar water laced with pesticide residue. Yuck!

[derekhenry]

07:15 PM on 09/17/2011

I agree. I'd worry a lot more about the sugar content than the aresnic content.

[Romaine Chritton]

06:42 PM on 09/16/2011

Around 20 years ago, Meryl Streep made the news by protesting the impurities and harmful elements allowed in apple juice. Nothing has changed, apparently. Is this the result of successful lobbying or are the poisons incidental? I recently gave up diet and regular sodas and replaced them them with apple juice and red wine. Silly me. Now it will have to be red and white wines!

[veglight]

03:12 PM on 09/16/2011

Tip: Support local farmers by buying local and juice your own apples. :)

[nycpmo]

09:54 AM on 09/16/2011

However, if there is a fire in the movie theater, I hope someone will yell "fire" before it is too late.

[nyscof]

09:06 AM on 09/16/2011

Ironically, fluoride chemicals, some imported from China, also contain arsenic. These arsenic- and lead-laced fluoridation chemicals are added to US water supplies unpurified. NSF International, the private organization that regulates public water supply additives found that 43% of fluoridation chemicals (silicofluorides) tested contained arsenic.
See: http://www.nsf.org/business/water_distribution/pdf/NSF_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Dr. Oz's critics are being too protective of water and food contamination instead of American's health. We can handle the truth. But we need to know about it so we can fix things. Thank you Dr. Oz for taking the heat so well.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers must demand NYC pass into law Council Member Vallone's legislation to stop fluoridation in NYC. Sign the petition to Mayor Bloomberg here: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-fluoridation-in-new-york-city

[Chaton de Malheur]

02:00 AM on 09/16/2011

The entire point of Dr. Oz's investigation was the fact that the FDA REFUSES TO REGULATE the arsenic levels, and the packaging of the retailers is deceptive. My husband just purchased a bottle of Hansen's Natural Apple Juice, bottled under the authority of the Hansen Beverage Co. in Corona, CA. No where on the label did they say the juice came from anywhere but CA.

Because I saw Dr. Oz's segment on the juice concentrates coming from China, Argentina and Brazil, I knew to look for the dot matrix print elsewhere on the bottle. I had to take off my glasses and put the bottle right up to my face to see it, but sure enough, it said "CONC FROM USA AND/OR CHINA". Great. Now I know I have arsenic laced juice, but thanks to the lack of standards at the FDA, I have no way of knowing if the level is low enough to be safe, or sky high, like the Gerber juice that was tested on the show. And the FDA is criticizing the whistleblower, rather than the poisoners!!!!

[marjoriedevine]

11:29 PM on 09/16/2011

I would not drink any type of apple juice, unless I grew and juiced my own apples.

[Chaton de Malheur]

11:38 PM on 09/17/2011

That's a very smart policy. I'm renting a cottage on a large lot with an apple tree, but I won't eat the apples because the owner of the property has had the same landscapers for years and they use GALLONS of weed killer instead of taking the time to pull weeds. I started pulling weeds myself and to get them to stop using the poison, but I've caught them using it again when they think I'm not home. Any new homeowner who is thinking of planting a vegetable garden needs to carefully consider what may have gone on in their yard previously. It's worth the $$$ to put organic packaged soil into raised beds rather than take your chances.

[James Vienneau]

04:55 PM on 09/15/2011

I'm confused. Why is there any inorganic arsenic in our apple juice? There is already the arsenic from the apple itself, but it is considered organic, so where is this inorganic arsenic coming from? I read it may be from pesticides, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the FDA is allowing any inorganic arsenic in our apple juice.

So don't bad mouth Dr. Oz just because he informed everyone of something that we should know about. It's like ground beef, it uses fat trimmings and other parts that usually goes towards dog food, and not only that but is cleaned with ammonia to kill E.coli but has to be at a high concentration to actually kill.

[SheikArbusto]

08:59 AM on 09/16/2011

Many of the apples are imported from Asia. In China, for example, there are little to no restrictions on what kind of pesticides can be used, many of which contain arsenic.

Free trade anyone?

Tell your congressmen and senators what you think of free trade agreements, as there are three more being considered right now.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

12:02 PM on 09/16/2011

Natural and non-natural sources of arsenic compounds.

Chemicals are everywhere and make up everything.  The chemicals that are in the ground can be absorbed by plants and produce no ill effects.   Some of these are in the ground and others are added as herbicides or pesticides (Vietnam saw the use of inorganic arsenic compounds as herbicides).

Apples do not produce arsenic.  Arsenic is an element (it is a metalloid).  Apples produce cyanide compounds (cyano group is a C tripled bonded to an N; -C≡N).   Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that occurs in various compounds.   Some bad (disrupt cellular metabolism) and some not.

[JeffWayne]

04:41 PM on 09/15/2011

Many of the apples in todays apple juice are imported from China. China has been guilty of importing toxic goods in the past. The FDA inspects less than 2% of these imported apples. The FDA is more an agricultural advocate than a consumer advocate. Many high level executives at the FDA go on to take multimillion dollar jobs at Monsanto and other companies they are supposed to regulate. A recent report by the Edmonds Institute lists names of the possible hundreds of men and women who move in and out of "revolving doors" as Federal regulators and directors, commissioners and scientists at the companies they are supposed to regulate.

[marjoriedevine]

11:32 PM on 09/16/2011

Stop buying crap from China!

[ddanimal]

03:00 PM on 09/15/2011

I'll go with dr oz, definitely.

The FDA lies about everything. Anyone remember Vioxx?

And the FDA still refuses to do anything about food colorants, despite the proof that it causes brain dysfunction in children.

[SheikArbusto]

09:00 AM on 09/16/2011

The FDA is about corporate protection, not consumer protection.

[Inside-Out]

09:52 AM on 09/15/2011

Dr. Oz is not the only one to publish studies of imported fruits and vegetables and related products. Consumer Reports and some environmental groups also published alarming results about imported grapes, spinach, sea food and other produce. We as consumers need to make educated choices and not relay on FDA.
My questions to FDA and other food and medical experts in this area:
1. Arsenic based pesticides are outlawed in USA, but FDA allows import of fruits and vegetables sprayed with Arsenic based pesticide in South American countries. Why is such double standard acceptable to FDA?
2. If total Arsenic is the way plumbs are tested (FDA information) why should we be only concerned with inorganic arsenic for apples? Double standard again?
3. USA government established limits for drinking water using total Arsenic. Concern was long term exposure to Arsenic (organic and inorganic). Why something that is not good for our drinking water is good for apple juice we regularly give to our children for 10-15 years.
4. Has anyone published data on effects of organic arsenic exposure to children from toddlers to young adults? If FDA or anyone else wants to claim that long term exposure to organic arsenic is safe please provide the proof.

[FrenchKissed]

12:13 PM on 09/15/2011

I believe arsenic based pesticides were banned in the US and Europe because of the ill efffects it had on farmworkers breathing it in as they sprayed fruit trees with it. I don't think they sprayed while the trees were producing fruit, but used it to spray the leaves before they began flowering.

[ddanimal]

03:02 PM on 09/15/2011

Good questions, all.

Hopefully, more people will wake up to the bad science and disregard for public health that is part of the culture at the FDA.

[gopezd]

08:22 AM on 09/15/2011

Just another doctor doing his spiel to get more popularity.

[OverseasVet]

11:06 AM on 09/15/2011

Its not to get popular as much as it is to spread FUD in an attempt to fleece people of their money, We can all thank Oprah for promoting these so called doctors and lowering our medical care.

[Chaton de Malheur]

02:10 AM on 09/16/2011

How does this fleece anyone of their money or LOWER medical care? I didn't buy anything from Dr. Oz, and I appreciate the fact that SOMEONE is testing products that the FDA refuses to regulate.

[Helene Anderson]

06:41 PM on 09/15/2011

Agree. I stopped being an Oprah fan long ago when it became clear she and her "friends" were just trying to promote themselves...the clincher for me was her glorifying "The Secret". The only reason many love her is because she literally bought her audience, showering them with all kinds of gifts so they would eat up everything her and friends say. In so doing, many of her doctor-friends and other professionals have sold themselves out so I no longer believe any of them. They prey on the needy and gullible to boost their ratings.

[Chaton de Malheur]

02:13 AM on 09/16/2011

The vast majority of Oprah's fans have never been on her show or received gifts of any kind. She has promoted health awareness, taken on the beef industry for lying about the nutritional value of beef, and given those without a voice a platform to air injustices and dangers so that the public can pressure our representatives to take action. Our society has benefited greatly from the hard work of people like Oprah and Dr. Oz, and if they happen to get rich in the process, more power to them.

[Danielle13]

07:54 AM on 09/15/2011

First of all, all apple seeds have arsenic in them. There are two types of arsenic: organic and inorganic guess which is harmful? Is it possible to die from consuming too much organic arsenic? Yes, but you would have to consume it in such ridiculous amounts that you would have to be trying to die that way to actually do it (no one would drink that many gallons or eat that many apples). Dr. Oz in his study failed to tell people not only the total amount of arsenic in the apple juice but he also neglected to say the amounts for organic and inorganic (or whether the inorganic was even present). He used a small sampling, only 50, and sent the samples to only one lab hardly a credible scientific study. And I question the validity of the science lab in question because no credible scientist would ever do a study in this fashion.

[Chaton de Malheur]

02:16 AM on 09/16/2011

Maybe you took a potty break when Dr. Oz gave the test results of the apple juice, because he certainly did. It would have been too time consuming for a show segment to have every brand of apple juice available tested, and that wasn't the point of the show. He wanted to call out the FDA for failing to protect the public, and in that end, he certainly accomplished his goal.

[aries932]

09:35 PM on 09/14/2011

I have to hand it to Dr Phil-O-$/h/i/t...he can cure anyone in one hour.

[aries932]

09:33 PM on 09/14/2011

Dr. Oz will eventually ban all food and drink from the planet if he gets his own way...why does he dye his dried out hair?...isn't that bad for him?

[OverseasVet]

11:08 AM on 09/15/2011

Don't worry. He sells lots of cures and magic on his web page.