Stop Schools from

Selling Drinks that

May Contain Poison!

Here's yet another reason why schools shouldn't sell soft drinks to children.

Recent tests conducted by scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere have found benzene levels in some soft drinks that are above the U.S. legal limit for drinking water.

"Now, in addition to the calories, parents and educators should be aware that some of the drinks they give children contain poison," explained Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. "Here we've got a genuinely worrisome reason to focus on soda in schools."

Chronic exposure to benzene is associated with leukemia, aplastic anemia and other blood diseases. According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency factsheet, exposure even “for relatively short periods of time” at above EPA limits for drinking water can “potentially cause” effects such as “temporary nervous system disorders, immune system depression, anemia.”

Benzene is formed by a reaction of two soft drink ingredients -- ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and either sodium or potassium benzoate (which are used as preservatives). Here is a list of some soft drinks that contain both ingredients.

While we continue our campaign to end the sale of all sweetened drinks and other junk food in schools because they promote obesity and type 2 diabetes, we’re making a special effort to stop the sale of soft drinks that may contain the toxic chemical benzene.

In 2005, Commercial Alert and our friends sent letters to all chief state school officers asking them to halt the sale of drinks that may be contaminated with benzene.

Now we need your help. Tell your governor and state legislators today to stop the sale of these drinks in schools.