FDA: Some Soda Drinks Contain High Levels of Carcinogen

May 19, 2006 — -- A Food and Drug Administration survey of soft drinks on store shelves found five products containing high levels of cancer-causing benzene.

The drinks contained more than the Environmental Protection Agency's maximum allowable 5 parts per billion.

The products are:

The rest of the more than 100 tested beverages, samples of which were collected from retail stores in Maryland, Virginia and Michigan, had low levels or no benzene at all, the FDA said. All the products have since been reformulated to remove the benzene.

According to the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, benzene is a chemical that is released into the air from emissions from automobiles and burning coal and oil. It is used in the manufacturing of many industrial applications.

Benzene is also a carcinogen that can cause cancer in humans. It has caused cancer in workers exposed to high levels from workplace air.

The FDA urged consumers to understand that the testing data is limited in scope, and that there is little information to go on.

"For example, although one sample from a production lot may contain elevated benzene levels, it does not mean that all the products from that lot will have elevated levels, or that all lots of a given product will contain elevated levels," stated an FDA report published Friday.

The agency plans to continue to collect and analyze samples.