FDA: Don't be alarmed but your soda can kill you

The news story on KYS in Philadelphia certainly opened my eyes. We drink a lot of soda. There's a sale on at Acme every week where you can get 10 2-liter bottles of soda for $10 and we usually end up going back for more at least once during the week. My dh gets 3 six packs of 20 oz diet Pepsi for himself during the week. We also drink juice but you can't drink a lot of it because of the sugar. My hubby and I love water but the kids usually won't have anything to do with it. Our youngest drinks the least soda of us all--she usually goes for the milk. Good for her.

I eagerly awaited the list of sodas we shouldn't buy or drink -- and the FDA won't name them. Oh, thanks a lot, guys, scare us all but don't tell us exactly which products to stay away from. Not only that, they advise us not to be alarmed; their investigation is in its early stages.

Maybe it'll be like the saccharine scare--unfounded.

Here's what Stephanie Stahl at CBS 3 says:

(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA The F.D.A. has confirmed they have found a potentially cancer causing substance in several popular soft drinks. Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has more.

The F.D.A. said there may be a problem with ingredients in the drinks, but there are no official warnings and nothing has been removed from shelves, but the government is investigating.

Americans guzzle soft drinks like crazy, but how safe are they? Preliminary testing from the F.D.A shows some potential dangers.

“It’s not appropriate not to tell the public about this information,” said Tim Kropp with the Environmental Working Group.

Kropp said the F.D.A. should warn people about potential risks with some drinks.

The problem is with a combination of certain ingredients, sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid or potassium benzoate and ascorbic acid.

When a benzoate is combined with ascorbic acid, there’s a potential that the chemical benzene is formed, which can cause cancer.

The F.D.A told CBS 3 it is investigating and in tests so far, 3 of 60 drinks were shown to contain benzene levels of five parts per billion, a level that exceeds federal safety limits.

“It can cause leukemia if it’s ingested over a long time, which children may have been doing because we've known that this has been a contaminant,” said Kropp

CBS 3 was unable to reach a spokesperson for the American Beverage Association.

The F.D.A. said it doesn't want to "alarm the public" and that its investigation is just starting.

so what should consumers do?

“We don't know which drinks actually exceed the federal limits, but we do know for the ones that contain both the benzo-8 and ascorbic acid that they have the potential to form benzene and it makes sense to steer clear of those,” said Kropp.

The F.D.A. would not identify any specific drinks.

The potential for benzene to be formed depends in part on environmental conditions like temperature and exposure to light, so it's really hard to determine the possible dangers.

The Environmental Control Group has a list of the specific soft drinks that might contain benzene.

I googled the Environmental Control Group and came up with nothing. Then I went to the FDA website to look. Still nothing. I'll keep looking. Meantime I guess we're switching to iced tea.

Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. Who's the better pig - Babe, or the pig from Charlotte's Web (can't remember his name)?

Awwww...I can't pick between Babe and Wilbur, they're both so adorable and they both won prizes!

2. What's your favorite pork-related food, if you eat pork?

Barbecued pork--it's called "pulled" pork here.

3. When you want to get a pig's attention, you yell "SOOOOOOEEEE!" What should we yell to get YOUR attention?

DAVID SELBY!

4. Random, non-pig question: Do you watch American Idol?

No