Environmentalists want labels on heavy metal chocolate

May 9, 2002 Posted: 7:32 AM EDT (1132 GMT)
 

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- An environmental group has sued to get warning labels slapped on chocolate products that caution sweet tooths about potentially hazardous levels of lead and cadmium.

The nonprofit American Environmental Safety Institute alleges products made by Hershey Foods Corp., Nestle USA Inc., Kraft Foods North America Inc. and other manufacturers expose consumers -- especially children -- to potentially dangerous levels of the metals.

A state investigation last year discounted the lawsuit's claims, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers have found children younger than 6 who eat lots of chocolate take in 6 percent or less of the total daily amount of lead allowable by law.

An attorney for the companies named in the suit said the lawsuit was baseless and an attempt to extort a settlement.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court seeks in part to force the firms to include warning labels on the products under a requirement of California's Proposition 65 that individuals be warned before they are exposed to dangerous chemicals.

Roger Carrick, an attorney for the Palo Alto-based institute, said scientific testing found that lead and cadmium levels in products like M&Ms presented "a clear and present danger to the health of our children."

Michele Corash, an attorney for the chocolate companies, said the two metals are present naturally in chocolate and other food but in levels too low to pose any hazard.

"We will vigorously defend the safety of our products," Corash said. "But our greater concern is getting the word out that these claims are totally without basis and are just designed to scare people."

Lead poisoning can impair intellectual development in children and cause progressive kidney disease in adults. Cadmium can cause kidney failure and inflammation in the lungs. The institute previously sued successfully over lead levels in children's vitamins.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

        

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