Sarah Gonzalez

Years after everyone got sick, Bill says he got a total of $32 million in settlements for the 450 victims who got poisoned.

The 42 who lost their gallbladders will get more than the other people.

And this

Tara Flower case, it is one of the clearest examples of the grass loophole failing consumers.

There's also a For Loco example, like the drink For Loco, where a bunch of young people started acting erratic after drinking it and some even died.

These examples are tragic.

But Bill Marler and Melanie Benesch say that in some ways, these are the straightforward cases.

People consume a thing and get sick immediately.

That's easy to track down and pull off the market.

For Melanie, it's the additives that don't cause an immediate health effect that are the most concerning.

The current system has let in additives that took the FDA years to ban, 600.

flavoring ingredients were allowed that turned out to be carcinogenic, like ethyl acrylate, a synthetic flavoring used to mimic the aroma of pineapples and kiwis.

partially hydrogenated oils were allowed for decades until the FDA revoked their grass status and said that removing them could prevent thousands of heart attacks and deaths each year.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, has actually proposed closing the grass loophole, though maybe not for the exact same reasons as Melanie.

The White House is reviewing the idea.

And there's also a draft of a bill in Congress that would actually require mandatory grass notices.

But people like Melanie argue it would actually broaden what is considered generally recognized as safe and possibly allow more chemicals to slip in.

Carol Reedy, who consumed terra flower, thinks the current grass system is already too broad.

She lost an organ because of it.

A lot of people say that you don't need a gallbladder, but not having a gallbladder now, I would argue the contrary.