Care for an ice cold can of benzo-soda?

As featured in the Silver Bulletin Newsletter

http://www.utopiasilver.com/featured_articles.htm

Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Expert links additive to cell damage
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Published: 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.