Soft drinks and a possible cancer link

Thu, 02 Mar 2006

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Chemicals found in soft drinks that are thought be carcinogenic has prompted calls for urgent action from campaigners.

Tests carried out by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on hundreds of drinks found some containing eight times more benzene than is permitted in drinking water.

The poison benzene is created when the preservative sodium benzoate is mixed with Vitamin C. The vitamin is added to drinks to make it more appealing to parents.

Richard Watts of Sustain, a food campaign group said, "We are worried that the drinks industry has apparently known about this for years without telling people.

"Benzene is pretty nasty stuff. It is a known human carcinogen and causes cancers. We simply don’t know if there’s a safe level.

"A lot of these drinks are marketed as health drinks for kids. If it’s unsafe in drinking water, why should it be safe in soft drinks?"

A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said, "The levels found so fare are not a cause for concern.

"If levels are high then the FSA will take action to protect consumers."

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