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Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear



 
 
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Old April 2nd 06, 12:30 AM posted to misc.health.alternative,talk.politics.medicine,misc.kids.health
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Default Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear

The Times April 01, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...113695,00.html

Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear
By Valerie Elliott, Consumer Editor

a.. 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


a.. Two batches of the Co-op's litre bottle of low-calorie
bitter lemon, with 28ppb and 11ppb benzene;
a.. Morrisons' two-litre no added sugar pineapple and grapefruit
crush, with 11ppb;
a.. Aldi's Hyberry one-litre high-juice, no added sugar
blackcurrant squash, 12ppb;
a.. 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.






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