I received a letter from Maurice Blackburn today; apparently everything is moving apace. Many of you who are joined to the action would also have received it.
Slowly move the wheels of justice.
We refer to our previous update letters and write to further update you on the progress of this class action.
Court process status
The defendant, Spiral [...]
Information about the recall of Bonsoy, hyperthyroidism symptoms and other info
September 14 update on the class action
March 28 Update on Bonsoy Class Action
I’ve received an update on the class action from the lawyers, here we go!
There was a case management conference/directions hearing on 11 March 2011. Everything there was done by consent and we now have a timetable for the next few months.
Where the proceeding is basically at is:
We filed our statement of claim.
Spiral filed their defence.
There [...]
Media: More soy milk victims come forward to join class action
Source: Maurice Blackburn
Hundreds of Australians have been made sick by Bonsoy milk containing high levels of iodine with over 300 contacting law firm Maurice Blackburn.
In late September, Maurice Blackburn issued proceedings on behalf of 25 people nationwide and now 293 more have come forward with 155 of these people joining the class action. A Brisbane [...]
Bonsoy – Medical Journal Australia paper
Thanks to the two people who sent this in to me.
I’ve uploaded the article as a pdf, downloadble here [113kb pdf].
Basically the article confirms the high levels of iodine in Bonsoy (refer table 2, page 3 of pdf) – 25,000-27,000 micrograms (ugrams/L) of iodine per litre.
Compare this to other soy milks which range from 15-30 [...]
The Bonsoy Class Action – Thanks
I’ve received a few emails thanking me for the website and to help get the action going, or at least get it in people’s minds.
Firstly, thanks to those people for emailing me.
Secondly, thanks to everyone who shared the personal – sometimes heart-wrenching – personal stories in post/page comments, or by emailing me (some were understandably [...]
The Bonsoy Class Action – How to Join
Sorry for the delay in getting this up, I was in NZ for a wedding as the class action was launched last week.
I’ve had LOADS of emails from people asking if they can join, and how.
Maurice Blackburn have provided the below information for posting to you all. Please contact them before emailing me for [...]
Update on Legal Action against Spiral Foods
Just a quick update on the progress of potential legal action against Spiral by Maurice Blackburn. I received this email this morning:
Hi Tim,
To keep you up to date – I’ve been contacted by about a dozen of your readers and have got a decent cross-section of the possible damage out there. I’m hoping that a [...]
Potential Class Action – your details needed
I’ve been contacted by a lawyer at Maurice Blackburn who is doing some pre-work on a potential class action. At this stage the work is an information gathering exercise only, but it’s good to see someone collating all the information.
Given what you have all been sharing, there is real potential here for people to recover [...]
Recovering your Costs from Spiral: What You’ll Need
I had an email from Jade the other day, asking what she can do about recovering costs from Spiral Foods.
Firstly, I’ll re-iterate that unless you’ve suffered permanent damage (heart, thyroid, etc) or had something serious happen (like a pregnancy complication), you’ll only really be able to claim time off work, medical (and similar) expenses and [...]
Spiral Foods Getting Sued?
On one of my recent posts, we had a someone (who turned out to be a News Ltd journalist) asking a lot of questions.
She got in touch with me and we had some fairly lengthy discussions, some of which was on the record for an article in the Daily Telegraph.
The to-press article, which is here, [...]
An Update: “Tim, time to come off the medication”
So, I received a letter from my endocrinologist yesterday.
I am back to normal on all thyroid markers; T4, T3 and TSH – smack bang in the middle of all the reference ranges.
So, after 5 months on medication, I am back.
My heart is still utterly stuffed – I reckon I’ve lost 10-20bpm off my peak heart, [...]
Update on Legal Action and Medical Cost Recovery
So, here is the state of play regarding cost recovery from Spiral Foods – their lawyers and insurance company are now involved.
Legal Information from my contact with my lawyers
I met with a lawyer today to ascertain the viability of proceeding with a legal case.
Some of what I discussed will remain confidential (bearing in [...]
Bonsoy Related Thyrotoxicosis Cases Not being Reported?
Another email from a concerned reader today tells me that the 10 or so cases related to Bonsoy in her endocrinologists practice have not been registered.
These cases should be reported to the Office of Health Protection, reachable on 02 6289 2751.
The cases must be reported by your GP or endocrinologist, which will probably involve them [...]
Bonsoy Back on Shelves, Still no Apology
Below is an extract of the media release, dated April 29th. A fantastic amount of positive spin (they certainly lay the schmaltz on thick at the end), but no mention of anyone’s ill health, nor an apology.
I also wonder what they think about the negative feedback, and people’s stories of their ill health as [...]
More Information about the 2004-2005 NZ Thyrotoxicosis Case and How it Relates to Bonsoy
I’ve done some more digging around on the 2004-2005 Thyrotoxicosis cluster in NZ.
In this particular case, the manufacturer/product was not Spiral Foods/Bonsoy.
It seems that:
A major soy milk manufacturer was implicated. Their product was tested and found to have excessive iodine.
Several people took action against the manufacturer and received what I understand to be large payouts, [...]
Bonsoy back on shelves?
Edit: After receiving a comment (first comment on this post), I need to note that I am not referring to the owner of the linked blog below as I describe below (smug etc). The particular description below is reserved for people who most certainly have been acting and commenting as per my below comment. So, [...]
Bonsoy Legal Action: An Update
Boy this is turning into a debacle, or, more than it already was, anyway.
Firstly, where is the apology on this? Absolutely unacceptable Spiral. Disgraceful.
So, as I’ve said, and as others have said, there has been talk of a class action.
I can confidently say that as it stands, a class action won’t proceed [...]
The 2005 Soy Milk Thyrotoxicosis Case in NZ
Well, well.
What a wonderful thing the internet is.
Courtesy of some research and a heads-up, I have become aware of the existence of a cluster of thyrotoxicosis in NZ in 2003-2005, that was subsequently linked to a soy milk manufacturer.
You can download the brief summary paper here – this was published in the Aust-NZ Journal of [...]
Vitasoy and Iodine
I’ve had a number of emails asking me about Vitasoy and whether it has any iodine in it.
I sent off an email to National Foods and got this response:
Dear Tim,
Thank you again for your contact regarding our Vitasoy products.
Vitasoy has an extensive range of Soy, Rice and Oat milk products on offer and we recommend [...]
The Bonsoy Recall Update
Hi, there – before we start, I need to note a couple of things.
To be 100% clear: this is not a vendetta. This is about loyal customers of Bonsoy being made sick, and being able to deal with the results of that, or being completely unaware of the cause of their illness.
If I sound angry, [...]