Instead of acknowledging regulatory issues and its potentially unsafe products, BlackOxygen Organics was running around threatening its critics.

One recipient of a BlackOxygen Organics cease and desist was the YouTuber Savannah Marie.

Marie had published two BlackOxygen Organics videos to her eponymously named channel.

Approximately six weeks ago, an attorney representing BlackOxygen Organics sent Marie a cease and desist.

The letter demanded Marie address statements and representations made in her two BlackOxygen Organics videos.

These include:

  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ products comes from “poop and stuff”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics illegally extracts mud from protected wetlands, is destroying natural environments and is not sustainable and extremely damaging;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product was “not clean” and is “contaminated by trash”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product likely contained “microscopic helmet eggs”, which are an agent for a worm disease called Helminthiasis;
  • that the “helmet eggs” got there from wastewater, sludge and excretia;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ CEO, Marc Saint-Onge is “doing as little as possible” to make the mud safe, and implied that people are having serious side-effects from ingesting worms that are in the product;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics has “damaged the ecosystem” and that there is “obviously a lot of unethical stuff going on”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics has “sketchy business practices”;
  • that Marie republished a disparaging claim, (stating) that BlackOxygen Organics was “a shit pile”;
  • that Marie republished a claim that BlackOxygen Organics was “doing something that was unethical”;
  • implying that BlackOxygen Organics’ product contained a “high percentage of a byproduct of the landfill right next door”;
  • that Marie republished the false claim that BlackOxygen Organics’ Certificate of Analysis “is fake”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product sampled in the CoA “was taken from next to a landfill”;
  • that (a) lab report “shows two industrial contaminants … one making up over seventeen percent of the sample tested”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product may be “toxic”, and that the product sampled was “pulled from an environment that contains some sort of toxic waste”;
  • claiming that seventeen percent of (BlackOxygen Organics’) product is “made from a known toxin and is basically poison”, and that the product is “toxic dirt”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product “contains worms”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product “causes blisters, rashes, general irritation, mouth sours, mucus membrane irritation and is so unsafe”;
  • implying that (BlackOxygen Organics’) product “causes people to shed their intestinal lining”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ product is “giving people sores at best, and intestinal lining shedding at worst”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics “targets vulnerable people”, and that “people who use the product are desperate”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ extraction site is “right next to a landfill”;
  • rejecting a claim that BlackOxygen Organics’ extraction site “was like fifteen miles away from the nearest landfill”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ extraction site was “a landfill bog” and “a toxic waste place”;
  • that consumers of BlackOxygen Organics’ products are “literally just eating dirt and shitting out their intestinal lining”, and then referring to that claim as “a fact that is literally happening”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ extraction site is “really close to a landfill and that the company is trying to hide it”;
  • rejecting the claim that “false and defamatory claims by haters have caused false reporting to government agencies”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics “did not even think about compliance”;
  • implying that BlackOxygen Organics is “going against federal regulation”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics is “hurting people” and “bankrupting people”;
  • claiming that the scientific data which shows the benefits of BlackOxygen Organics’ product “isn’t actually science”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ increased sales are “based on vulnerable people thinking, “this magic mud can cure my cancer, so I’ll buy that”;
  • that BlackOxygen Organics’ “clearly didn’t have experienced corporate MLM executives before the compliance call”; and
  • that BlackOxygen Organics was “making these crazy health claims, and hurting people financially and medically and physically”.

BlackOxygen Organics demanded Marie remove her YouTube videos and issue a “robust correction, clarification or retraction”.

BlackOxygen Organics stated they expected “immediate compliance” from Marie, failing which she’d be subject to “legal proceedings”.

As a result of the notice, Marie left her videos up but discontinued discussing BlackOxygen Organics on her channel.

On November 23rd, approximately five weeks after sending Marie a cease and desist, BlackOxygen Organics announced it was shutting down.

In an extortion lawsuit filed in September, a few weeks prior to Marie’s cease and desist, BlackOxygen Organics confirmed regulatory action.

Health Canada had issued a recall of BlackOxygen Organics products in August. This was followed by the FDA prohibiting the sale of BlackOxygen Organics products in the US later the same month.

Neither regulator has publicly commented on the reason for the recall and ban.

Marie claims to have put together a fifty-two page response to BlackOxygen Organics’ notice. She plans to discuss her response in a future video.

There’s a fair bit of cross-over between claims BlackOxygen Organics objected to, attributed to Marie, and BehindMLM’s own published BlackOxygen Organics review.

What’s particularly egregious here is BlackOxygen Organics was threatening Marie months after health regulators in Canada and the US took action.

BlackOxygen Organics knew something was up (contrary to their representation, food and safety regulators don’t issue recalls and block products from sale because hAtErZ), but were instead running around in denial – and threatening anyone who claimed otherwise with legal action.

Seeing as neither BlackOxygen Organics or Marc Saint-Onge have any interest in transparency, I’m looking forward to a report from Health Canada and/or the FDA, detailing exactly what they found.

 

Update December 8th 2021 – The FDA has issued a public health warning, advising BlackOxygen Organics’ products contain elevated levels of lead and arsenic.