Tuesday 13 May 2008
Toxic Additives In Soft Drinks
The following article is reprinted from The Independent
Additional information on the subject was reported today on Fox News.
Expert links additive to cell damage
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Change font size: A | A | ABy Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Sunday, 27 May 2007
A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.
The problem - more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse - can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.
The findings could have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume fizzy drinks. They will also intensify the controversy about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children.
Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.
Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.
Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.
He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.
"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) backs the use of sodium benzoate in the UK and it has been approved by the European Union but last night, MPs called for it to investigate urgently.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat chair of Parliament's all-party environment group said: "Many additives are relatively new and their long-term impact cannot be certain. This preservative clearly needs to be investigated further by the FSA."
A review of sodium benzoate by the World Health Organisation in 2000 concluded that it was safe, but it noted that the available science supporting its safety was "limited".
Professor Piper, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date.
"The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are complete safe," he said. "By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago."
He advised parents to think carefully about buying drinks with preservatives until the quantities in products were proved safe by new tests. "My concern is for children who are drinking large amounts," he said.
Coca-Cola and Britvic's Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi all contain sodium benzoate. Their makers and the British Soft Drinks Association said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government.
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Monday 5 May 2008
McCain Assails Democratic Health Care Approach
MIAMI (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized his Democratic rivals on Monday for a "big government" approach to health care and said he would focus on reducing costs and increasing coverage.
McCain launched a week-long campaign swing on his health care plans with a visit to a Miami children's hospital and a talk with parents of ill children who have been forced to endure long struggles with care and costs.
"America can have a health care system that is characterized by better prevention, coordinated care, electronic health records, cutting-edge treatments -- and lower costs," McCain said.
He drew a contrast with the Democrats battling for the right to face him in November's presidential election -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
The debate on overhauling the U.S. health care system has been one of the campaign's top issues.
Both Democrats have set a goal of universal health care coverage for the 47 million Americans without health insurance. Clinton would mandate some form of coverage for all individuals, while Obama would only mandate coverage for children.
McCain's plan, released last year, does not include a mandate requiring coverage.
"That's the fundamental difference between myself and Senator Obama and Senator Clinton. They want the governments to make the decisions, I want the families to make the decisions," he told reporters.
"My goal is to make health care available and affordable, including insurance, to every American family. I do not mandate it nor do I mandate other things. That's what big government is all about and that's the difference in philosophy that we have," he said.
The Democratic plans offered by Obama and Clinton propose health care coverage through a mixture of private and public sources and would not be government-run. Both would allow individuals to buy into the health plan that covers members of Congress and other federal employees.
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