Lawsuit Claims Fish Oil Pills Contain Toxins

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fish oil pills. They’re supposed to make you healthier. But on Wednesday, a group of environmentalists filed a lawsuit claiming many fish oil supplements contain high levels of PCBs and other toxins.

The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation says it found problems in 10 out of 100 brands it tested. The lawsuit, filed in California, alleges the makers and sellers of these 10 different pills failed to alert consumers of potential contamination as required under the state’s right-to-know law.

One of the defendants named in the case is Omega Protein, a company recently featured in a Fox 5 series about fish oil supplements and their impact on the Chesapeake Bay.

John Hocevar of Greenpeace, which released a similar study in 2007, says the pills tend to contain high-levels of toxins because they are made of fish that absorb those same chemicals from their surroundings. He says, "What Omega is trying to do is reduce the fish into oil, so they're concentrating the oil from a whole bunch of fish, from millions of fish and so they're concentrating the toxics as well.”

In a statement, Omega Protein says its “products are in full compliance with all federal laws promulgated by the US Food and Drug Administration” and “the labeling requirements of California’s Proposition 65.” The company says “there are many issues on which Omega Protein disagrees with the plaintiffs, including measuring PCBs, the level of PCBs at which the warning would be required, testing protocols and applicable industry standards.”

Other defendants include drug store chains Rite Aid Corp and CVS Caremark Corp, as well as General Nutrition Corp, Now Health Group, Solgar Inc, TwinLab Corp and Pharmavite LLC, the maker of the NatureMade brand supplements.