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State Alerted On Benzene In Soft Drinks
March 25, 2006 - By LORETTA WALDMAN, Courant Staff Writer New concerns about benzene in soft drinks have prompted doctors from Yale, Harvard and elsewhere to call for a ban on the drinks in schools.
In a letter sent to state Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg and education officials across the country, the health professionals - including the head of the American Academy of Pediatrics - joined an Oregon-based nonprofit group in asking the schools to stop selling and marketing certain soft drinks until they are shown to be free of benzene, which is a known human carcinogen.
According to a letter sent by Commercial Alert on Thursday, soft drink manufacturers are not adding benzene to the drinks directly. Rather, the compound is formed in some soft drinks by a reaction of ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, and the preservatives sodium and potassium benzoate, especially in the presence of heat and light.
Scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have found that the drinks contain concentrations of benzene above the federal limit for drinking water, the letter states. Chronic exposure to benzene is associated with leukemia, aplastic anemia and other blood diseases, the letter states, adding that children may be especially sensitive to benzene because their bone marrow cells are highly active.
David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center and one of the 10 health professionals to sign the letter, said the revelation adds yet another reason not to make soda available to children.
"Now, in addition to the calories, parents and educators should be aware that some of the drinks they give children contain poison," Katz said. "Here we've got a genuinely worrisome reason to focus on soda in schools."
Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, produced documents showing the FDA and soft drink associations have known for 15 years that the common ingredients could react to form benzene in drinks. The FDA, however, maintains it does not present an immediate health risk at present levels.
"The issue here is not something that should cause anyone alarm or terrific concern," George Pauli, a top food-safety expert at the FDA, told the Orlando Sentinel earlier this month.
Sternberg declined to comment and referred questions to Susan Fiore, nutrition education coordinator for the state Department of Education and author of the nutrition policy at the heart of a bill that, among other things, would remove soda from schools.
"We really were not looking at that research, which is news to me," Fiore said of the benzene, "but it's kind of a moot point, because we want to get soda out anyway due to the low nutrient value."
Last year, soda and junk food in public schools was one of the most heavily lobbied and bitterly debated issues in the legislature. The sale of soft drinks is a $90 billion industry that in Connecticut generates about $5 million a year for schools. The House and Senate eventually passed a bill banning both from schools only to have it vetoed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, whose objections centered on an unrelated 20-minute exercise provision she believed impinged on the autonomy of local districts.
Last month, Rell and state Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, announced a measure that would impose a ban during the school day on the sale of soda and sports drinks. School cafeterias and vending machines would be limited to the sale of water, low-fat or skim milk, non-dairy milk and juice.
But passage of the bill, which encourages districts to adhere to nutritional standards by nearly doubling the current nickel-per-meal subsidy, is far from certain, observers say. Along with heavy opposition from soda and snack-food companies - which spent $250,000 lobbying against last year's bill - local Teamsters are also working to defeat it.
Christopher Roos, head of South Windsor-based Teamsters Local 1035, said the bill's impact would be "devastating" to his members, 121 of whom would lose their jobs if it were to pass
Kevin Keene, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association, called the Commercial Alert letter "irresponsible" and with "no basis in fact."
"Our foremost concern is always our customer, so we've always taken seriously the quality and safety of our product," he said.
Hartford Courant Staff Writer Rachel Gottlieb contributed to this story.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Commercial Alert
Gary Ruskin (503) 235-8012
Benzene in Some Soft Drinks Prompts Call for Halt on Sales in Schools
WASHINGTON - March 23 - In response to recent findings by scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere that certain soft drinks may contain amounts of the carcinogen benzene above the U.S. legal limit for drinking water, Commercial Alert and public health advocates sent letters today to all U.S. chief state school officers, asking them to stop the sale and marketing of these soft drinks in public schools, until they can be proven safe and free from benzene contamination.
The letter was written and organized by Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization that protects children and communities from commercialism. The letter follows.
Dear Chief State School Officer:
As you may know, scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere have found that some soft drinks sold commonly in the U.S. contain concentrations of benzene above the U.S. legal limit for drinking water.
Benzene is classified as a known human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Chronic exposure to benzene is associated with leukemia, aplastic anemia and other blood diseases. Children may be especially sensitive to benzene because their bone marrow cells are highly active.
Accordingly, we urge you and local school officials to cease the sale and marketing of certain soft drinks in public schools until they are shown to be safe and free of the toxic substance benzene.
Soft drink manufacturers are not adding benzene to the drinks directly. Rather, the compound is formed by a reaction of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and sodium or potassium benzoate (which are used as preservatives) -- especially in the presence of light or heat. Soft drinks that contain ascorbic acid and sodium or potassium benzoate include Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry, Fanta Orange, Hawaiian Punch, Mug Root Beer, Pepsi Vanilla, Sierra Mist, Sunkist and Tropicana Lemonade, among others.
The evidence of benzene contamination of soft drinks is coming from many quarters, and it is mounting. On February 15th, Beverage Daily reported that recent tests had shown that some soft drinks contain benzene at levels “above the legal limit for water set by the US and Europe.” According to Beverage Daily, independent tests at a laboratory in New York found benzene levels in a couple of soft drinks contain two-and-a-half and five times the World Health Organization limit for drinking water, which is more permissive than is the U.S. standard.
Then, on March 4th, the Times of London reported that just 100 of the 230 soft drinks tested for benzene met the standard for British water, “with some containing up to eight times the legal limit.”
Of course, benzene exposure is not the only way that soft drinks can harm children’s health. In addition, there is substantial evidence that sugar-sweetened drinks are contributing to the epidemics of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.
It is irresponsible to provide to schoolchildren products that are unhealthy and may contain a carcinogen. Please, halt the sale and marketing of soft drinks that contain ascorbic acid and sodium or potassium benzoate, until you can look parents in the eye and assure them that their children will suffer no harm.
Sincerely,
Claire L. Barnett, Executive Director, Healthy Schools Network, Inc. Leon Eisenberg, MD, Professor of Social Medicine Emeritus, Harvard Medical School Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest Carden Johnston, MD, FAAP, FRCP, Past President, American Academy of Pediatrics David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, Director, Yale Prevention Research Center David Ozonoff, MD, MPH, Professor of Environmental Health; Chair Emeritus, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health Kenneth Rosenman, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Michigan State University Gary Ruskin, Executive Director, Commercial Alert Vic Strasburger, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico School of Medicine
<----letter ends here---->
In 1990, the National Soft Drink Association told the FDA about the problem of benzene contamination in soft drinks. The FDA did some testing of benzene levels, but did not make its findings public.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set its limit on benzene in drinking water at 5 parts per billion (ppb). In its “consumer factsheet” on benzene, the EPA states that “EPA has found benzene to potentially cause the following health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level – for benzene, 5 ppb] for relatively short periods of time: temporary nervous system disorders, immune system depression, anemia.”
Commercial Alert is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy.
For more information about soft drinks in schools, and benzene contamination, see: http://www.commercialalert.org/issues-landing.php?subcategory_id=34&category=2
A list of soft drinks containing both ascorbic acid and sodium or potassium benzoate is at http://www.commercialalert.org/softdrinklist.pdf.
For background on benzene contamination of soft drinks, see:
http://www.beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?id=65840
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/natio
nworld/2002843123_benzene04.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2065539,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2068834,00.html
http://www.alternet.org/story/33380/
http://www.commercialalert.org/benzenejafc.pdf
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