Some of the nation's top-selling winemakers are facing a lawsuit after experts found high-levels of the carcinogen arsenic in hundreds of wine bottles, CBS News reported.
Out of 1,300 wine bottles tested at a Denver laboratory, about 300 showed levels of arsenic more than three times the limit set for water by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to Kevin Hicks, the lab's owner who conducted the testing.
That's not all Hicks found.
"The lower the price of wine on a per-liter basis, the higher the amount of arsenic," Hicks, who founded the lab Beverage Grades for wine testing, told CBS News.
Brands tested included Two-Buck Chuck White Zinfandel, made by grocery chain Trader Joes, a moscato from Ménage à Trois, and a Franzia Blush, which had five times the arsenic in water limit set by the EPA.
When Hicks presented the evidence to the companies, most "literally almost hung up the phone on me," he told CBS News. He has now filed a class-action lawsuit against 24 California winemakers and distributors for misrepresenting their product as safe.
Hicks is also seeking for the companies to recall the wines and issue a refund, his lawyer, Brian Kabateck, told the station.
Arsenic is a carcinogen, meaning it can cause cancer, and when ingested in small amounts can lead to nausea, vomiting, and an irregular heartbeat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exposure in high amounts can cause death.
The EPA says drinking more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic in water is hazardous. But those warnings are based only on studies with water, and not wine, which does not have an arsenic limit set by the federal government.
"It would not be accurate or responsible to use the water standard as the baseline" since people usually drink water more than wine, a spokesperson for The Wine Group, which advocates for California winemakers, told CBS News.
The group, named as one of the defendants in Hick's lawsuit, also said California's wine industry warns consumers by putting up signs in stores when there are carcinogens in the product, as required by state law.
However, Allan Smith, associate director of U.C. Berkeley's Arsenic Health Effects research program, said the warnings should be placed directly on the wine bottles.
"To most consumers, that may not help them, but it would sure be a big incentive for the wine producer to get down to the drinking water standard," Smith told CBS News.