Sorensen ex rel. Dunbar v. Shaklee Corp.

BRIGHT, Senior Circuit Judge.

Kristofer and Katrina Sorensen have suffered from mental retardation since birth, allegedly caused by their parents’ ingestion, prior to the children’s conception, of alfalfa health food tablets produced and distributed as a Shaklee product by defendant Shaklee Corporation (Shaklee). Some of these alfalfa tablets had been treated with the chemical ethylene oxide (EtO), leaving on some a chemical residue of ethylene chlorohydrin (ETCH) and ethyl glycol. Defendant Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Company, Inc. (Union Carbide) produced EtO.

Kristofer and Katrina,…