>>>
parents who saw the dr. oz show on wednesday may be throwing out their bottles and boxes of
apple juice
this morning. the show says an independent lab it hired found some brands have potentially dangerous levels of arsenic in them, but the
fda
says dr. oz got it wrong. we'll talk to him in a moment. but first, nbc's tom costello is in washington with the details on this. tom, good morning.
>> reporter:
hi, matt. good morning to you. in fact, the
fda
is calling the show irresponsible for what it says is bad information. for the audience watching the dr. oz show wednesday the allegation was startling.
>>
some of the best known brands in america have arsenic in their
apple juice
.
>> reporter:
the show says it hired an independent lab to test samples of
apple juice
produced overseas. that lab found one-third of the samples contained levels of arsenic higher than what the epa allows in
drinking water
.
>>
but guess what? there is no limit on arsenic in
apple juice
.
>> reporter:
the
fda
says that's misleading because there are different types of arsenic, some dangerous like from pesticides and some that's naturally occurring and not as dangerous. the dr. oz show only counted the total amount of arsenic without differentiating. in letters to the show a senior scientist at the
fda
warned that, quote, it would be irresponsible and misleading for the dr. oz show to suggest that
apple juice
contains unsafe amounts of arsenic. the
fda
also questioned the testing methods used by the show, since the
fda
conducted its own tests of the same
apple juice
lots and found arsenic levels well within safe margins, almost zero.
>>
try and interpret that data to mean that
apple juice
is unsafe, is misleading, it's irresponsible. and i think they're needlessly scaring parents.
>> reporter:
dr. oz responded by calling for more
scientific research
.
>>
i don't want folks to stop drinking
apple juice
. i want us to more seriously figure out if we've got an issue with
apple juice
.
>> reporter:
dr. oz says he is still buying american made
apple juice
while the juice industry insists all of its products are tested and safe.
>>
apple juice
is tested before it enters the country.
apple juice
is tested before it enters the marketplace.
apple juice
is tested after it enters the marketplace.
apple juice
has been tested by
fda
for years, and
fda
has no cause for concern.
>> reporter:
the dr. oz show of course is very popular and dr. oz, himself, has become something of a
national health
guru, but in this case he's accused of getting it wrong and scaring his audience, matt.
>>
tom costello, thank you very much. dr. oz is with us now. good morning.
>>
good morning.
>>
so i'm a father of three children, 11, 7, and 4.
apple juice
is a staple in my house as it is in homes all across the country. on your show you sounded the alarm and you said you're concerned about the levels of arsenic found in some apple juices. you say it can be dangerous for long-term exposure. the
fda
disagrees. why should i believe you and not the
fda
?
>>
you know, i have four children and like you and many parents i was very concerned to hear some reports which we began to process over the summer about other groups besides ours that there might be arsenic levels in
apple juice
higher than we would expect and allow and desire. so we did our own independent investigation, and we found studying 36 samples obtained from different parts of this country that we were i den fooig in about in about 30% of the samples levels higher than in our drinking or
bottled water
. we took this information to the trade organizations, to the juice companies, to the
fda
and asked if we should be alarmed. no one was willing to talk to us. we couldn't get anyone to offer any insight that was meaningful. they wouldn't come on the show. when i asked the
fda
how they figured out what would be a safe level of arsenic because we don't really have a level that is as a law in this country for the amount of arsenic in
apple juice
.
>>
right.
>>
they asked us to file a
freedom of information act
document.
>>
even if they didn't talk to you back then they are now speaking in reaction to what you said on the air on thursday. the
fda
says you missed, in your testing, something very important. that your testing failed to distinguish between organic arsenic and inorganic arsenic, and only took into account total arsenic levels and that you cannot accurately assess a
threat level
or danger level using that methodology.
>>
well, what's used today for
drinking water
in this country is the total arsenic level. in addition, when we asked the
fda
what level they thought may be of concern they didn't have anything for
apple juice
but said for pear juice they used a total arsenic level. so we went with the kinds of data they were looking for when they do their baseline service. in addition other peer reviewed reports of arsenic levels in apples have looked at inorganic versus organic levels. most of the arsenic found has been inorganic in nature. it takes weeks to differentiate the two. i also don't think it is fair to argue organic arsenic is safe. there are many folks, people who spend a lot of time studying toxins in the environment, who are concerned about organic arsenic levels as well. admittedly inorganic is what we should focus on.
>>
right.
>>
but the organic levels are of concern as well.
>>
you bring up the comparison to
drinking water
. we went to an independent expert at cornell's department of food and science. he says this about your study. he says the number of juice samples dr. oz took for analysis are not a statistically valid number of samples to make generalizations about the juice industry. this is a nonscientific way for extrapolating what a problem is. how would you respond to that?
>>
well, we studied 36 samples. when the
fda
came to us and expressed concerns we restudied them. they still were upset. so we actually had a different group submit 30 more samples and got that data as well, which was very similar to what we found in the first two studies. and so when we saw that compared to, you know, the limited amount of data out there, there have been three other groups but they've also been relatively small samples you realize the
call to action
here is not to condemn other folks. i love
apple juice
. i've been a big advocate. part of the reason i wanted to do the show is because i've been talking so much about the benefits of things like
apple juice
. if we're going to have a discussion about the arsenic levels in our
apple juice
let's have it and be clear on what we're really offering to folks that we're talking to about this stuff.
>>
so parents getting ready to prepare breakfast for their kids or sending their kids off to school with a drink that could be
apple juice
, the takeaway message, even though you're getting pushback now from the
fda
, your takeaway message this morning is what?
>>
my takeaway message is that i'm concerned because 60% of the apples we use in
apple juice
in america do not come from apples grown in this country, because we have changed our growth and treatment of apples in this country by banning the use of arsenic, pesticides in those apples but that is not true in other countries, that there is a heightened level of concern by me and others that there is arsenic slipping into our
food supply
by these imported apples so let's figure it out. in the meantime i would not pull the
apple juice
oust the bt of the box you're giving your kids. it's not harmful short term. it's only the long-term ramifications, matt, i'm worried about.
>>
all right. dr. oz, we will follow this story. we thank you for your time this morning, doctor.
>>
thank you.
“ ”