Times (London) - Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear: Watchdog demands inquiry over benzene levels in 26 popular brands

Times (London) - Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear:
Watchdog demands inquiry over benzene levels in 26 popular brands
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...3695_2,00.html

Britain

The Times April 01, 2006
Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear
By Valerie Elliott Consumer Editor

* Watchdog demands inquiry over benzene levels in 26 popular brands

SOFT DRINKS were being removed from supermarket shelves last night
after they were found to be contaminated with a cancer-causing
chemical.

Four products were immediately pulled from shelves and a further 22,
including leading brands, were found to contain levels of benzene
greater than that allowed in tap water. The bottles already taken from
shelves because they breach World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance
include own-label soft drinks sold by the Co-op, Morrisons and Aldi.

Tests on one Co-op drink showed that levels of benzene, which is linked
with leukaemia and other forms of blood cancer, were 36 times those
allowed in tap water. Drinks that were still on sale last night, but
that breach the legal limit for benzene in tap water, include some of
those made by Schweppes, Robinsons, Kia-Ora, Vimto and Lilt.

Food safety campaigners demanded that all products with benzene levels
above drinking water be removed from sale until they complied with the
tap water standard.

Richard Watts, spokesman for Sustain, said: "I would think twice
about drinking anything that was above the standard for drinking water,
and many parents will feel the same. It is outrageous that it has taken
so long for the public to learn these figures, given the industry has
known about the problem for 15 years. Yet only now consumers will know
the truth."

Stephen O'Brien, Conservative health spokesman, said: "These are
very important results, but they reinforce the need for us to know what
is a safe limit for benzene to be acceptable in drinks, and I feel the
agency must now decide what is that safe limit."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said last night that it wanted urgent
talks with the soft drinks industry to ensure that all products meet
the legal level for tap water of one part per billion. There is no
maximum level for the chemical in soft drinks in EU law and there is no
legal requirement even for manufacturers to follow the WHO limit. The
bottles removed from sale a

* Two batches of the Co-op's litre bottle of low-calorie bitter
lemon, with 28ppb and 11ppb benzene;
* Morrisons' two-litre no added sugar pineapple and grapefruit crush,
with 11ppb;
* Aldi's Hyberry one-litre high-juice, no added sugar blackcurrant
squash, 12ppb;
* A Popstar 330ml still, sugar-free lemon and lime drink, with 17ppb
benzene, manufactured by Silver Spring Mineral Water, of Folkestone,
Kent.

There was anger that the FSA and the drinks industry had been slow to
investigate benzene in soft drinks. Action was only triggered after
traces of benzene were found in the US in brands such as Diet Pepsi and
Sunny D - these drinks have different formulations in Britain and do
not contain benzene.


The FSA rushed out results yesterday of tests on 149 drinks including a
range of fruit juice, iced tea, squash, fizzy and low-sugar drinks. It
did not check any brand of cola because this does not contain the two
products that trigger the formation of benzene in drinks, an agency
spokesman said.

The compound has only been found where drinks contain sodium benzoate
E211, a preservative used widely by manufacturers to prevent growth of
moulds, and ascorbic acid E300, otherwise known as vitamin C. An
absence of sugar from a drink and exposure to light and heat are also
possible causes.

The bulk of the drinks, including Fanta and own-brand juices from
Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose showed no detectable traces of
benzene or matched the UK water standard of 1ppb, prompting the food
watchdog to demand that all drinks comply with the standard.

Andrew Wadge, the FSA director of food safety, said: "These results
show that it is technologically possible to produce soft drinks without
detectable traces of benzene. This is what we want all manufacturers to
do."

He made clear that people should not be alarmed if they have drunk the
products. Benzene is in the air and most people on average breathe in
220 micrograms a day.

People would need to consume more than 20 litres of a drink containing
benzene at 10ppb to equal the daily amount from the air.

The British Soft Drinks Association said last night in a statement:
"The test results published by the FSA show that the levels of
benzene that have been found are very low and that soft drinks are safe
to drink."

The Co-op and Aldi immediately removed the contaminated drinks from
sale and Morrisons issued a recall.

The Silver Spring Mineral Company, which manufactures the other brand
removed from sale, declined to comment.


History and Origin of Benzene in Soft Drinks
http://www.schoolpouringrights.com