[size=14pt]Flame Retardant In Soft Drinks[/size]

Brominated vegetable oil is patented as a flame retardant and it's banned in food all over Europe and Japan, but it's on the ingredient list of about 10 percent of sodas in the U.S. It's not in Coca-Cola, but is in Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, and in some flavors of Powerade and Gatorade.

What brominated vegetable oil (BVO) does to soda is, Coca-Cola explains, "prevent the citrus flavoring oils from floating to the surface in beverages." The fruit flavors that are mixed into a drink would otherwise settle out. What BVO does when it's acting as a flame retardant is not much different: It slows down the chemical reactions that cause a fire.

Safe For Consumption?
The FDA established safety limits for the substance in the 1970s, but Environmental Health News reports about growing concerns that the limit was informed by reports put out by an industry group containing outdated and, as industry-generated information tends to be, less-than-comprehensive data.

EHN has the details:

After a few extreme soda binges — not too far from what many gamers regularly consume – a few patients have needed medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders, all symptoms of overexposure to bromine. Other studies suggest that BVO could be building up in human tissues, just like other brominated compounds such as flame retardants. In mouse studies, big doses caused reproductive and behavioral problems.

EHN explains that BVO was pulled from the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list for flavor additives in 1970, "bounced back after studies from an industry group from 1971 to 1974 demonstrated a level of safety," at which point the Flavor Extract Manufacturers’ Association (which actually exists—not to be confused with the government agency FEMA) "petitioned the FDA to get BVO back in fruit-flavored beverages, this time as a stabilizer, which is its role today."

Interim Approval -- For More Than 30 Years
Today, more than 30 years (and much animal testing, including on pigs and beagles) later, the approval status for BVO is still listed as interim. EHN reports that changing that status would be expensive and quotes FDA spokesman Douglas Karas saying it "is not a public health priority for the agency at this time."

With BVO banned in so many countries, there are feasible alternatives. And that brings us to the unsurprising but disturbing note on which the EHN story ends:

Wim Thielemans, a chemical engineer at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, said since the alternatives are already used in Europe "their performance must be acceptable, if not comparable, to the U.S.-used brominated systems." That means "the main driver for not replacing them may be cost," he said.

"It is a North American problem," Vetter added. "In the E.U., BVO will never be permitted."

Link: http://www.treehugger.com/health/flame-retardant-in-soft-drink.html


[size=14pt]Coke, Pepsi cut level of ‘cancer' chemical[/size]

COCA-Cola and Pepsi say they have lowered levels of a chemical in caramel colouring which has been found to cause cancer in lab tests.
The move allows the companies to avoid having to label products with a cancer warning due to a California law setting safe levels of 4-methylimidazole.


Globally popular Coke and Pepsi drinks

Both drink-makers said their popular and highly secretive recipes will not be altered but that caramel suppliers have been asked to reduce 4-MEI levels in California, a change that will eventually spread across the United States and - at least in Coke's case - around the world.

"We are NOT changing our recipe; or our formula," Coca-Cola Company spokesman Ben Sheidler said in an email.

"What we did do is direct our caramel suppliers to make a manufacturing process modification in order to reduce the level of 4-MEI in our caramel so as to meet the requirement set by the state of California's Proposition 65."

For its part, PepsiCo said its beverages "are and always will be safe for consumption."

"Consumers will notice no difference in our products and have no reason at all for any health concerns. There is no scientific evidence that 4-MEI in foods and beverages is a threat to human health," it added.

California voters passed Proposition 65 in 1986, and the law aims to protect state residents from "chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and to inform citizens about exposures to such chemicals."

A California court ruled in December that 4-MEI could be listed as a known carcinogen under Prop 65.

The state set a 29-microgram benchmark for 4-MEI in products. Anything that may expose consumers to a daily level higher than that must carry a warning label.

According to the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a recent sampling of Coke and Pepsi drink cans in the Washington area showed levels ranging between 103 and 153 micrograms.

But beverage industry leaders, including the American Beverage Association, argued the evidence of a cancer link is limited to one study in mice and is not recognised by major US, European and Canadian health agencies.

The ABA added that a person would need to drink massive amounts of cola to reach a risk level similar to the dosing in mice - 2,900 cans of cola every day for 70 years - that served as the basis for California's decision.

"The science simply does not show that 4-MEI in foods or beverages is a threat to human health," the ABA said.

"In fact, findings of regulatory agencies worldwide, including the US Food and Drug Administration, European Food Safety Authority and Health Canada, consider caramel colouring safe for use in foods and beverages."

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the CSPI consumer group, countered that argument by noting that the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organisation, last year concluded that 4-MEI was an animal carcinogen and probably a human carcinogen.

"They (Coke and Pepsi) have said that forever, that the amounts don't pose a safety risk," he said in an interview.

"It's face-saving. They have been fighting California for two or three years. And they didn't prevail. They sued California and they lost."

CSPI has petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration to ban ammonia-sulfite caramel colouring, which is the type used in many common products including cola, soy sauce, coffee, bread, molasses, gravy and some beers.

The chemical forms as a by-product of a heating process to create caramelisation when ammonia or ammonia sulfite is used.

Mr Jacobson applauded the move to cut levels in California, and urged more action on a global scale. "The question is, when will Coke and Pepsi make these changes around the world, not just in California?"

Mr Sheidler said Coca-Cola would begin enacting the same changes to beverages nationwide and globally "in order to streamline and simplify our supply chain, manufacturing and distribution systems," though no timeline has been set.

Link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/coke-pepsi-cut-level-of-cancer-chemical/story-e6frf7lf-1226295759796

Thanks alot for this information.