“The Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) products that were analyzed contain levels of lead that are in excess of what the law allows under California’s Safe Drinking and Toxic Environment Act of 1994 more commonly known as Prop. 65,” says lawyer and dietary supplement and Prop. 65 expert Christopher Grell in a letter to the Fraud Discovery Institute now posted on the FDI web site.
He later adds: “Since Herbalife’s products are often times sold as a Weight Loss Program, containing many of the Dietary Supplements that were analyzed, a warning should be placed on all Herbalife Weight Management Program packages containing these products on the grounds that the cumulative exposure to lead from the daily use of Herbalife’s Weight Management Program supplements exceed the Maximum Acceptable Levels (MADLs) and the No Significant Risk Levels (NSRLs) (see Title 22 Section 12705 California Code of Regulations).”
On April 25th, 2008 the Fraud Discovery Institute announced in a press release that it would begin testing certain Herbalife products. The results of these tests reveal that, among other products, the company’s best selling Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake and Shapeworks Protein Drink Mix, when taken as recommended by Herbalife, contain 8.5 times and 12 times the maximum daily exposure to lead levels. This is especially troubling because Herbalife, a California-based company, faces the toughest scrutiny in the country under the California based Proposition 65.
Also noted in the newly released information is the fact that this is not the first time Herbalife products have come under such scrutiny. After the release of the two separate studies done in two different countries titled, “Herbal does not mean innocuous: Ten cases of severe hepatotoxicity associated with dietary supplements from Herbalife products” Journal of Hepatology 47 (2007 521-526) and “Association Between Consumption of Herbalife Nutritional Supplements and Acute Hepatotoxicity” Journal of Hepatology (2007 Oct 47(4) 514-520) which are now available on the FDI web site www.frauddiscovery.net, Herbalife asked the public to believe their explanations and excuses over the results of the studies regarding the safety of their product.
“But they cannot do that anymore,” says Barry Minkow, Co-Founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute. “We simply looked at Table 3 of the Switzerland study and selected the top six Herbalife products that appeared to be linked to the most damage and tested these products at an independent, FDA-registered lab and they all contained level-breaking lead amounts” added Minkow.
The Fraud Discovery Institute then promptly wrote a letter that included the lab test results and a Nutraceutical expert’s legal opinion and sent it to Congressman Henry A. Waxman. Congressman Waxman had warned the FDA in April of 2007 of the dangers of lead in various “nutritional” products.
“The saddest part of these results, after this third ‘alarm’ regarding Herbalife product danger, is that this is a clear pattern which is now firmly established. Moreover, Herbalife supervisors and distributors are both encouraged and instructed by the company to diligently consume these dangerous lead levels daily and in mass amounts,” said Minkow. “This might explain why our legal expert concluded his analysis of the test results by stating: ‘Ironically, it is a health and nutrition company that appears to be selling a product that amounts to nothing more than a lead cocktail.’”
19 May 08 at 12:26 pm
Tracy how do you see this being explained?? Will these people just say Minkow is just out to give them a bad name? Or will this actually strat getting people thinking maybe Minkow was right? I honestly hope something starts to happen with these companys to show Minkow was not out to just shut down a company for the fun of it.
19 May 08 at 12:57 pm
I just don’t know. The name of the game with MLMs is spin and deflect. They can’t possibly admit that Barry is right about anything, or their entire fight against him begins to crumble.
But this is VERY serious. We’re not talking about a speck too much of vitamin C. We’re talking about toxic levels of lead.
The biggest consumers of Herbalife products are the distributors themselves. As with other MLMs, there’s no meaningful retail customer base outside the distributors. The distributors make their purchases to qualify for commissions, and are left to consume these products or throw them away. They are being poisoned by their own company.
15 Sep 08 at 1:24 am
What I think is that this website should be shutdown or erased, as an Herbalife Independent Distributor myself, I’ve been taking the Herbalife Products since I was 5 yrs. old in massive amounts. Lol! I’m 27 yrs. old and I feel better and better, year after year of my consumption of the Herbalife products as well as my family. My 2 brothers were born with Herbalife in their system since they were in the woomb of their mother. Wikipedia.com has already said that on August 2008 Minkow retracted every statement he made about the company of Herbalife and took of all his sites, well this one is still up and you people need to get a life, like helping the environment or something or helping other people instead of filling the internet with complete and utter lies.
15 Sep 08 at 7:23 am
Roger,
Published Laboratory Documents speak for itself. Do you claim that multiple FDA certified laboratories lied and/or fabricated the results?
15 Sep 08 at 8:18 am
The distribution of Herbalife products is marketed on television as “Crazy Like a Fox”.
I’ve heard Crazy Like a Fox described as “a lead capture system for Herbalife”.
Seems Herbalife is capturing lead just fine on its own, thanks.