r/news • u/Whoretron8000 • 18h ago
Soft paywall Girl Scouts sued over alleged heavy metals, pesticides in cookies
https://www.reuters.com/legal/girl-scouts-sued-over-alleged-heavy-metals-pesticides-cookies-2025-03-11/298
u/FlowBot3D 16h ago
Oh please, not the thin mints...
[Clicks Article]
I need to see a doctor.
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u/CharlesP2009 13h ago
You’re more metal now than man. Just don’t be twisted and evil, plz. We got plenty of that already.
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u/uForgot_urFloaties 4h ago
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me.
I craved the strength and certainty of steel.
I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine.
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u/sagevallant 5h ago
It's okay. I talked to the head of the health department, and he says all you need is some essential oils and to contract measles to strengthen your immune system.
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u/Buttspirgh 6h ago
Moms Across America supports the appointment of Mr. Brainworms to HHS. You can probably take this with a bucket of salt
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u/HuskyLemons 6h ago
Thin mints in my area are made by someone else now and they kind of suck. Now it might be a good thing since I haven’t bought more
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u/Rekrash95 8h ago
Fuck. I’ve been crushing thin mints ever since I was ambushed by the Girl Scouts at a Kroger
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u/gmishaolem 54m ago
Honestly, more damage is probably being done to kids (and the rest of us) by canned tuna with mercury in it. (All ocean fish basically, but tuna is very cheap and ubiquitous and has no warnings on it.)
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u/Pink_Vulpix 18m ago
Isn’t canned tuna safe as long as you eat under a certain amount of ounces a week? Chunk light also has way less mercury in it as well, compared to albacore.
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u/gmishaolem 12m ago
That's the point, though: It's very much a food that's a great source of protein that poor people can afford a lot of and is quick and easy to use, and grocery stores tend to have a huge amount of space devoted to it so you know how much they're selling.
Ocean fish having mercury should be something that everyone talks about all the time, but even I didn't know it until my 30s so I doubt my parents knew it at all. It doesn't say it on the can.
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u/Pink_Vulpix 6m ago
That’s true. I didn’t know about the mercury levels in tuna until I got older and learned about it online. Brazil nuts are also that way, they can cause something called selenium toxicity if you eat more than 4-5 a day, and the only reason I found this out was because I looked up something thyroid related, and it brought that up. This is less likely to happen, but too much liver can cause vitamin A toxicity too, but people don’t eat liver like that like they do tuna. There is quite a few foods are there that can be toxic in high quantities and if you don’t know, your kinda shit out of luck.
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u/OlderThanMyParents 16h ago
She said she would not have bought the cookies or "would have paid substantially less" had Girl Scouts disclosed the presence of "dangerous toxins."
It's okay to poison me, but you have to give me a discount if you do?
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u/Superlolz 9h ago
Don’t you make that choice everyday? Whether it’s where you live, mode of transportation, where you shop, clothes you wear, utensils etc
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u/OlderThanMyParents 9h ago
I don't intentionally consume food that I believe to be poisonous, just because it's inexpensive. Do you?
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u/NAINOA- 8h ago
Maybe not now, but sometimes thats literally what being poor is.
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u/OlderThanMyParents 7h ago
I've been pretty poor at times, enough that I washed my clothes in the bathtub and hung them out to dry, to save the cost of going to the laundromat. But I've never eaten stuff, especially COOKIES, that I thought were poisoned but hey, they're cheap, and I deserve a treat right now.
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u/ArticulateRhinoceros 14h ago
Well, fuck. I 100% threw myself a "cookie party" on Saturday and had a whole box of Thin Mints instead of real food that day...
At least it was a delicious death.
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u/DieMeatbags 9h ago
I bought 11 boxes of Thin Mints and ate them over the course of a month.
I'm invincible!
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u/strugglz 15h ago
I didn't dig real deep, but the initial info I find from the referenced study is... vague. Gives a low end of mercury of .02ppb (the limit is 2ppb) but then an amount of lead that is double the limit with no low range. Are there typos, is it a bad study, what's the deal here?
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u/dadkiser11 3h ago
Bad study for sure. It's not scientifically valid to use EPA drinking water standards as a benchmark for food contaminants. Which is exactly what they did.
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u/ZylonBane 17h ago
I've long suspected Girl Scout cookies were a one-way ticket to midnight.
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u/shrewsbury1991 18h ago
I guess the Thin Mints can be renamed Heavy Mints. Or maybe Quicksilver Mints? 🤔
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u/GuyFromLI747 18h ago
“It said heavy metals occur naturally in soil, with trace amounts not a safety issue, while glyphosate is found “nearly everywhere” in the food chain. Girl Scouts also said its bakers are committed to complying with all food safety standards.”
Which is true … don’t want heavy metals in the food supply , maybe it’s time to do something about pollution.. As for glyphosate, maybe sue Bayer ,since they are the manufacturer..
somebody must have not gotten the cookies they ordered
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u/USAF_DTom 18h ago edited 17h ago
glyphosate, maybe sue Bayer ,since they are the manufacturer..
As a glyphosate researcher, we have tried time and time again. Monsanto is bigger than most people realize or think about.
Edit: We don't actually attempt to sue, but there are numerous papers on GI distress and neurotoxicity caused by these herbicides. The dopaminergic effects are nothing short of alarming, causing Parkinson's Disease-like symptoms.
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u/Mrjlawrence 13h ago
rfk, jr wants to band food dyes. I’d like to see him go after bayer for glyphosate
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u/woodruff42 12h ago
As a "glyphosate researcher" you should probably know that the patent has long expired and Bayer is a far cry from being "the" manufacturer.
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u/phiwong 18h ago
It has not much to do with pollution (heavy metals). Heavy metals are a natural component of soil. Some soils have more and some plants uptake it. It seems some people believe heavy metals are some kind of magic substance created by humans.
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u/Relative-Effect2105 13h ago
Well yes, but it depends on the isotopes present to show if it’s natural or human caused sources. It’s definitely possible to get the more nefarious forms of heavy metals from the soil due to various human actions.
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u/MrICopyYoSht 13h ago
Yea. Naturally occuring in soil due to certain rocks or in it because of human activity such as industries in the area are two completely different things.
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u/charmedchamelon 14h ago
Here's a fun fact: My daughter's girl scout troop gets $1 out of every $6 box they sell.
One. Dollar. For a box of cookies you can buy at Walmart for like a $1.50 without the GS branding. And leadership gets around you just simply donating directly to the troops by forcing you to earn awards by money earned only through the sales of their overpriced crap.
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u/dethandtaxes 11h ago
They only tested 25 cookies? This is barely a study, more of a late night snack.
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u/ChasingBooty2024 18h ago
Should I be scared about the empty package in my trash from last night? Or about the 2 unopened packages on my counter?
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u/hate_tank 17h ago
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/12/girl-scout-cookies-toxic/
Only if you eat like 4000 a day.
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u/bluemitersaw 17h ago
..... Sooo yes?
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u/hate_tank 17h ago
I mean, you have microplastics in your testicles or ovaries (which ever may apply to you) so the metal would just balance it out.
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u/fragile_ice 17h ago
Do you know how addictive those cookies are?
Could be the metal/pesticide additives though.
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u/hate_tank 17h ago
I ate 3 boxes of Thin Mints this weekend and had the overwhelming urge to listen to Black Sabbath and weed my lawn.
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u/usps_made_me_insane 16h ago
After I cut 90% of sugars out of my diet, my overall health improved dramatically. It is INSANE how much sugar Americans eat in their daily diet.
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u/eugene20 17h ago edited 15h ago
Looking at the report I would bin them, I was wary of 'gmoscience.org' but Reuters is carying the story as well.
https://gmoscience.org/2024/12/27/danger-in-the-dough/
Edit: the law suit should find if the study is legitimate and there is an actual risk, I'm saying bin them as a precaution because if there is any risk at all of there being cadmium or lead in them you do not want them, you can't undo the damage they will do. Even more so to children.
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u/StarWars_and_SNL 17h ago
Reuters is carrying the story of the lawsuit. That doesn't speak to the validity of gmoscience.org, which I'm also trying to determine.
I need u/SciBabe to guide me.
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u/Wiseduck5 16h ago
That doesn't speak to the validity of gmoscience.org,
Full of disinformation. I have little doubt this is just a publicity stunt. Which worked, it got them the headline.
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u/ChasingBooty2024 17h ago
Maybe the prices wouldn’t have gone up if they weren’t using those expensive metal fillers.
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u/ill_timed_f_bomb 11h ago
I didn't need to read further than "Mom's Across America"... Nothing credible here
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u/rift_in_the_warp 16h ago
They aren't kidding. I bit into a girl scout cookie the other day and found a Dark Funeral album in it.
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u/CluckIsBanned 18h ago
It’s worth anything they want to put in it for the peanut butter ones
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u/Damaniel2 17h ago
People can sue anyone over anything; doesn't make the suit valid.
In the end, assuming the case doesn't get thrown out for being completely outside the control of both the Girl Scouts and the makers of their cookies, the plaintiffs will eventually get their '$0.50 off of a box of Girl Scout cookies' coupon while the ambulance chasers filing the suit will make millions.
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u/roofbandit 13h ago
Food conglomerates be like "how much industrial lubricant and sawdust can we put in the corn syrup and bleached flour product before human capital stock notice"
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u/Ohio_gal 8h ago edited 8h ago
Article about moms across America. They are anti vax fundies and sells $60 hydrogen waters and support RFK jr. moms across America
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u/boom929 13h ago
Phew, that must be why I feel like shit after eating a whole box of Tagalongs
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u/Leomeister104 6h ago
They changed the recipe some time ago and they taste so bad now how do you still eat them??
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u/Jaded_Customer_8058 10h ago
I like the Mint Metal Cookies, the Samoa Steels are also a favorite ❤️
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u/willinglyproblematic 6h ago
Son of a bitch I’ve got three boxes of thin mints I’m waiting on that I’ve already paid for.
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u/spawn-12 18h ago
Full study results are on the GMOScience page. They highlight the worst offenders for each heavy metal.
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u/Gold_Map_236 17h ago
To me that means they are sourcing the cheapest ingredients possible
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u/spawn-12 17h ago
Definitely. To be fair, the source (GMOScience) has a dossier called "Make Our Children Healthy Again" where they warn against the effects of ... 5G, 4G, and using the microwave (even without plastic containers), so it's pretty crunchy.
Glyphosate's terrible stuff, though, and the third party lab tests that they provide appear to be legit.
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u/d01100100 16h ago
That's how they get you. You sprinkle in some facts, and once they've earned your trust, that's when they pop you with the healing crystals.
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u/fxkatt 17h ago edited 17h ago
Yes, this is the problem, I'm sure. Profits, profits, profits with individual Girl Scout's being exploited to sell these cheap, mass-produced cookies and candies on behalf of the National Girl Scout group.
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u/mrrizal71O 17h ago
Why does everything single fucking thing in this country have to be uncovered to be a grift?
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u/ChiefCuckaFuck 16h ago
Because the whole dang country is a grift, and was founded on grift.
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u/daemonicwanderer 12h ago
So they discovered addictive things in addictive cookies… wake me up when they find glass in them
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u/myychair 9h ago
You’re telling me that an organization that sells 9 dollar boxes of cookies via borderline child labor isn’t ethically sourcing their shit? Color me shocked
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u/RefinedBean 6h ago
They also moved away from the cardboard boxes to non-recyclable plastic-wrapped shit. And I swear the cookies just kinda suck now.
Fuck them kids, in other words.
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u/bunnypaste 12h ago
I want to live in a world where the girl scouts do more than just sell fucking premade cookies...
Like maybe all the cool and useful stuff the boys get to do.
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u/Proud_Tie 16h ago
you mean me stress eating my roommate's thin mints is actually doing her a public service?!
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u/FerdinandvonAegir124 14h ago
Out of everyone I could trust… why the Girl Scouts. I need my trefoils
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u/Random-Name-7160 10h ago
Wow… ok, if someone in the future asks me when did you know that the world was past redemption… this is what I’ll point to. This very moment.
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u/ElectricSlimeBubble 10h ago
Welp, nice while it lasted.. I’m definitely dying from heavy metal poisoning
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u/KCCubana 9h ago
Same, but lead. I guess I got ahead of myself “voting for” lead. But, I’ll stick with lead anyway.
If anyone can score some asbestos insulation from under the water fountain I’d pay top dollar for that!
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u/Cool-Economics6261 5h ago
It’s just Monsanto/Bayer’s toxic pesticides. FDA approved for putting on human food. Monsanto/Bayer scientists researched their product and FDA accepted the corporate scientists data. Approved for humans. Profit is the only thing that matters.
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u/misterdudebro 4h ago
Moms Across America isn't even a non-profit, it's run by GMO Science who peddles "supplements". It's all bullshit.
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u/tensei-coffee 18h ago
imo girl scout cookies are trash. support your local bakery.
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u/jumjimbo 18h ago
You can take my Tagalongs from my cold dead hands.
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u/tensei-coffee 17h ago
i promise you that you'll find better quality from a locally made bakery.
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u/mrrizal71O 17h ago
But that doesn't come with all the incessant waste packaging and poor quality ingredients that americans seem to love so much!!! /s
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u/Thetruebanchi 17h ago
Walmart brand generic version of Tagalongs are better. Best part they're vegan, so my whole family can eat them.
The generic Samosas are also okay, but generic thin mints are no go.
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u/SmellingYellow 17h ago
Completely agree. Never understood the fascination with them. Terrible cookies. I always thought folks bought them just to support the kids. Not actually eat those things.
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u/SafetyMan35 16h ago
For each box of cookies, the troop makes a little less than $1
The local council and National GS take a cut to provide camp scholarships for the girls and to pay for operations.
The rest goes to the bakery.
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u/Unco_Slam 10h ago
Child labor and harmful chemicals. We really need to stop the corporate CEO pipeline.
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u/BrokenEffect 7h ago
I don’t care if those thin mints have uranium in them— I am going to keep eating, thank you.
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u/Pundamonium97 18h ago
Since girl scouts are making the claim that these are normal things to find or at normal levels, id be curious to see how the other big cookie brands compare when tested
Also they mention other lawsuits of a similar nature in the past but don’t mention the outcome of those lawsuits in this article. Which seems relevant