Report: FDA knew about benzene in soft drinks.

April 16, 2006

Report: FDA knew about benzene in soft drinks

BY DAVID GOLDSTEIN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/14291361.htm

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON - A newly discovered Food and Drug Administration report shows the agency had data at least three years ago that some soft drinks had unsafe levels of cancer-causing benzene.

The Environmental Working Group, a private, nonprofit scientific research organization, found the data recently in a June 2003 FDA report chronicling the level of contaminants and nutrients in food and beverages.

Known as the Total Diet Study, the report shows that between 1995 and 2001, nearly 80 percent of the diet cola that the FDA sampled had benzene levels higher than the limit allowable in drinking water. Among 24 diet cola samples, 19 had levels that were on average four times higher.

"What it all means is the FDA is not being completely straight with the public," said Richard Wiles, the environmental group's senior vice president. "These data are surely available to FDA's scientists and officials. It raises questions about the sincerity of their efforts to keep benzene at safe levels in the food supply."

FDA officials have said there's no cause for alarm over the safety of soft drinks. Though results from current testing have yet to be made public, they said most samples show either very low levels or none at all.

Benzene is a common industrial chemical found in gasoline, car exhaust and tobacco smoke. Long-term exposure can cause cancers of the blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Soft drink manufacturers do not add benzene, but it can form when two common ingredients react: ascorbic acid, otherwise known as vitamin C, and the preservatives, sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. It usually takes exposure to light or heat to cause the reaction.

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