Another Reason Sodas Cause Cancer
 

Traces of the cancer-causing chemical benzene have been found in French and British soft drinks, at levels up to eight times those allowed in drinking water.

This follows on the heels of similar results for drinks tested in the United States.

It has been known for 15 years that sodium benzoate, a preservative, can produce benzene when mixed with ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Many are concerned that the two chemicals are still being mixed together in many drinks.

Although no more than one part per billion of benzene is allowed in drinking water in Britain, there are no legal restrictions on the amount present in soft drinks.

Benzene is associated with leukemia and other cancers of the blood. It is generally found in pollutants such as car exhaust fumes.

Aspartame  (NutraSweet)

Saving the benzene for the Benz

Between the sugar and coloring agents in most soda and the artificial sweeteners in "diet" varieties, there's plenty in pop to pop off about. And as some of you may know, I've been doing just that for a long time...

But one soda ingredient I didn't think I'd ever be sounding the alarm about is benzene!

For those of you who don't know, benzene is a flammable petroleum (crude oil) distillate, a key component of many solvents, cleaners-and yes, gasoline too. It's also used in the making of plastics and rubber. Last but not least, benzene is a known carcinogen, linked strongly to blood cancer and leukemia in humans. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? Maybe if you're a car...

Yet cancer-causing benzene is exactly what's been recently discovered in large quantities of soda-pop in Britain. According to the UK's Times Online, 26 different soda products from various manufacturers have been pulled from the shelves of several market chains because of unsafe levels of the compound.

What are unsafe levels?

Well if you ask me, ANY of the stuff's unsafe. But according to Britain's Food Standards Agency (acting under guidance from the World Health Organization), acceptable levels of benzene in soft drinks should be no higher than what's considered safe in drinking water: 1 part per billion (ppb).

At least one of the soda drinks yanked from shelves last month tested at 36 TIMES this limit. Others tested at still-high 28ppb and 17ppb levels.

Currently, there is no legal limit for the amount of benzene in drinks other than water in the UK. That makes this somewhat uncharted waters for the FSA. They de-shelved these drinks under existing WHO benzene guidelines-which technically have no legal jurisdiction in the EU. According to the Times piece, both the soft drink industry and the FSA have known about excessive levels of benzene in their products for 15 years or more...

Perhaps now that this soda scandal is world news, the FSA and other EU regulatory bodies will pass regulations about benzene, and force beverage industry compliance. Interestingly enough, the action was sparked by the discovery of benzene in several drink varieties in the U.S., including one major household-name brand of diet soda. I won't say which, in the hopes you'll avoid them ALL just to be on the safe side.

And safer you'd be, too, despite the results of a new study on aspartame (NutraSweet) risks. Keep reading...

I've written before about the risks of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. Back in September of 2004, I covered the subject at length in both the Daily Dose and in my newsletter. At that time, I reported on research demonstrating aspartame's link to cancer and other disease - and on a study showing how it can lead to the very thing it aims to curb: Excessive calorie consumption...

In other words, no matter how you look at it, aspartame's bad news in my book.

But leave it to the Feds to conclude the exact opposite of what lots of REAL scientists and open-minded doctors already know. According to an Associated Press article from just days ago, a 5-year National Cancer Institute study of more than half a million Americans of both sexes revealed no discernible correlation between aspartame consumption and an increased risk of cancer of any type.

This, despite a 2005 Italian study of 1800 lab animals which showed troubling increases in rates of leukemia and lymphoma among those fed aspartame, especially the females...

For the record, I'm not flummoxed in the least by the results of this federal study. I've been subscribing to the "rule of opposites" for years when it comes to most government research. If they say something's bad for you, it's likely a tonic - if they say something is good (the Food Pyramid and the 8 daily glasses of water comes immediately to mind), I say: Run the other way.

After all, the FDA is another government agency that conducts and reviews research, and they're giving deadly drugs like Vioxx the thumbs-up all the time...

If they came out and said aspartame was bad, I might just have to take up drinking it!

Dishing the hard news about soft drinks,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD

Benzene

Poisons in the fridge - and on the fringe

Benzene Scene

What's really scary about all this is that what the FDA considers perfectly safe levels of benzene in our drinking water (5 parts per billion) is actually 5 TIMES HIGHER than what's allowed by law in the UK - which means the benzene levels found in diet soda by the recent testing here are roughly the same as what sent Britain's Food Standards Agency into a shelf-clearing panic.

And the FDA says there's no cause for alarm, and no health hazard.

According to the FDA, benzene levels can increase in bottled sodas after exposure to heat, light, or long periods on the shelf. Apparently, it's a natural reaction of sodium or potassium benzoate, a preservative found in many sodas, especially diet varieties.

Remember that next time you're at the grocery store.

Al-Qaeda aims at Beer and Burgers

It's been a while since I reported anything about terrorism, but a recent item I saw in the news brought the issue back to front and center for me...

According to a March Associated Press article, America's FBI recently uncovered a large-scale al-Qaeda plot to poison beer and burgers at sporting events and in street vending machines in Britain. One of the terrorists that was to carry out the plot, captured and accused along with 6 others, claimed to have already tested the plan.

The suspected terrorist, 34 year old Waheed Mahmood, masterminded the plan to infiltrate the beer vendors in UK soccer stadiums, or burger vendors on street corners outside them. The AP piece links the man with a militant Islamist group operating in Britain. The group apparently also had plans to bomb Britain's electricity grid.

Sounds like a serious attack was in the works, doesn't it?

Well, they sure picked the right targets if they wanted to do mass harm. Any attack that scares people away from drinking beer and eating (bun-less) burgers - some of the few truly healthy foods out there - would be doing major harm to people's health...

Not by directly poisoning them, but by driving them to poisons like benzene-laced diet soda and carb-loaded refined foods.

Thank the powers that be (and the FBI) that they didn't bring the attack off.

Reporting what's "laced" with truth and irony,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD
BBC News March 1, 2006
Times Online.co.uk March 2, 2006

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