answering myself, courtesy of those bleeding heart liberals at the Kansas City Star...
Posted on Mon, Mar. 06, 2006 Benzene in soft drinksQuestion of safety gets downplayedThe discovery of trace amounts of benzene, a chemical linked to cancer, in some soft drinks raises considerable concern. And that concern is aggravated by the fact that federal officials have been keeping the public in the dark on this issue for a decade and a half. As a story in The Kansas City Star reported on Saturday, there were problems about benzene in some soft drinks 16 years ago. The beverage industry assured government officials the problems would be fixed, and that apparently was good enough for the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA never told the public. Thanks only to the curiosity of someone concerned about soft drinks in the schools, however, the benzene problem has resurfaced. And the levels of the chemical in some of these drinks are even higher than what was found in 1990. The interaction of certain soft-drink ingredients can lead to the presence of benzene, which has been linked to certain types of cancers. The industry and the FDA are now downplaying the soft-drink problem, emphasizing that small amounts of the chemical have been found. But âsmallâ is a relative term; some drinks had two to four times the level of benzene that the Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable in drinking water. Thatâs troubling, particularly when many Americans â including children â sometimes seem to be drinking more soft drinks than water. Nor is there much comfort to be found in the words of Kevin Keane, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association. âPeople shouldnât overreact,â he said. âItâs a very small number of products and not major brands.â If you happen to be one of the people using these particular products, of course, a certain amount of âoverreactionâ to the situation might seem natural. Because as one official with a nonprofit research group put it so well: âMost people would prefer there are no known human carcinogens in what they drink.â Federal officials charged with ensuring the safety of foods and drinks might want to keep that thought in mind. Thereâs a natural curiosity as to which products, exactly, Keane was referring to. But he was not forthcoming on this point. Neither were some major soft drink companies, which simply referred questions to the industry association. The federal government and the industry should move as quickly as possible to determine the current extent of the problem â and to provide the public with more information about it. If federal officials had let consumers know about the benzene problems that occurred long ago, after all, it seems safe to assume that in the years that followed there would have been greater vigilance all the way around. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/14026654.htm > Well see -- what you are saying about sugar was itself conventional > wisdom at one point. However, I do agree with you concerning the > spouters of conventional wisdom. It's just that well, much as I > despise saying it, occasionally concentional wisdom is correct. > Apparently ;) Personally, I gave up sodas in a period where I had do > avoid all caffeine, and I find I really don't like them now. > > On a side note, did anyone see the articles about benzene being found > in British soft drinks? It seemed to me that the articles (all in > British papers) were saying that the same carcinogen was also in > American drinks, but this was not explicitly spelled out. Anyone know > for sure? > > >Kinda what I thought... I mean... I'd always been under the > impression > >that sugar by itself didn't really contribute to obeisity all that > >terribly much... As compared to grams of fat or possibly complex > >carbohydrates (I'm still on the fence re: low-carb diets, I'd like > to > >think that there's just something fundamentally wrong with > >"conventional wisdom" largely because I'm not generally impressed > with > >"conventional wisdom" because it's too convenient (see the book > >Freakonomics) but at the same time I'm just ... Atkins zealots (like > >most zealots) make me want to vomit all over them, which makes it > >difficult for me to give serious consideration to possibility of > their > >rhetoric being more than propaganda.) > > > >Am I the only person here who just gets sick when I see people all > >glombing on to the latest hot new fad like low-carb diets or > <shudder> > >the web without doing the homework and really understanding (at > least > >fundamentally) the garbage they're spouting? Problem is that seems > to > >be mostly what mainstream culture(s) produce -- people spouting > >garbage not because they've researched it but because it's popular > and > >therefore "conventional wisdom" (and apparently for most people > >conventional widsom == ABSOLUTE TRUTH HANDED DOWN BY GOD). > > > >Sorry for the rant... but that really I think is what pisses me off > >most -- people clinging to these BS ideas as though they're sacred > >writ that's gonna save their immortal soul from eternal damnation > when > >in reality it's just some stupid, inane babble that some > >under-educated lemming happened to phrase in a catchy > >sound-byte-worthy way that made it popular. <sigh>... > > > >Forgive me, I'm having a moment. :) > > > >Zealots really piss me off. :) > > > >> Come on Larry, I call bullshit. > > > >> I'm skinny as hell, and I drink Mountain Dew (highest > >> average sugar and > >> caffeine content of a normal soda) by the case. Why am I > >> not fat and nasty? > >> Because I don't eat like crazy and I stay active. > > > > > >> In other words that's the same set of arguments that big > >> tobacco has been > >> using for years. > > > >> larry > > > > > > > > > >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:199082 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
