The Coke Machine - Michael Blanding [162]
Page 82 FDA dismissed the study: Food and Drug Administration, “FDA Statement on European Aspartame Study,” May 8, 2006.
Page 82 sending representatives to lobby: “Banning Aspartame in New Mexico,” Carlsbad Current-Argus, January 31, 2007.
Page 83 discovered excessive levels of benzene: Larry Alibrandi, former chemist at Cadbury-Schweppes, interview by the author.
Page 83 reaction of . . . sodium benzoate with ascorbic acid: Lalita K. Gardner and Glen D. Lawrence, “Benzene Production from Decarboxylation of Benzoic Acid in the Presence of Ascorbic Acid and a Transition-Metal Catalyst,” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 41, no. 5 (May 1993), 693-695.
Page 83 more than 25 parts per billion: “Project Denver” documents provided by Larry Alibrandi.
Page 83 legal limit of 5 ppb: Environmental Protection Agency, “Basic Information About Benzene in Drinking Water,” http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw000/contaminants/basicinformation/benzene.html.
Page 83 met promptly with the FDA: Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, “Benzene Residues in Soft Drinks,” Memorandum of Meeting, December 7, 1980.
Page 83 let the companies quietly reformulate: Food and Drug Administration, “Questions and Answers on the Occurrence of Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages,” http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodContaminantsAdulteration/ChemicalContaminants/Benzene/ucm055131.htm#q6.
Page 83 Perrier water was found contaminated: Alan Riding, “Perrier Widens Recall After Finding,” New York Times, February 15, 1990.
Page 83 FDA’s own tests: Environmental Working Group, “FDA Data Undercut Public Safety Assurances by Top Agency Official: Tests Found High Benzene Contamination of Diet Soda,” April 4, 2006, http://www.ewg.org/node/8777.
Page 83 still present in some drinks: Larry Alibrandi; Laboratory Analysis Report for American Quality Beverages, Life Sciences Laboratories, Inc., November 11, 2005; for more information, see Michael Blanding, “Hard Times for Soft Drinks,” AlterNet, March 13, 2006.
Page 83 FDA released its own tests: Food and Drug Administration, “Data on Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages,” May 16, 2007, http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodContaminantsAdulteration/ChemicalContaminants/Benzene/ucm055815.htm.
Page 83 “unequivocally that our products are safe”: The Coca-Cola Company, “Company Statement on Benzene,” March 17, 2006.
Page 83 reformulate the drinks and pay: “Coca-Cola Reaches Settlements over Benzene Claims,” Associated Press, May 14, 2007.
Page 84 “three major political waves”: David Vogel, Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Power of Business in America (New York: Basic Books, 1989), 93-94.
Page 84 labeled the “food police”: Activist Cash, Center for Science in the Public Interest, http://activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/o/13-center-for-science-in-the-public-interest.
Page 84 push to ban trans fats . . . calorie counts: Center for Science in the Public Interest, Trans Fat, http://www.cspinet.org/transfat/; Stephanie Saul, “Conflict on the Menu,” New York Times, February 16, 2008.
Page 85 even young children . . . girls . . . two cans a day: Michael F. Jacobson, Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks Are Harming Americans’ Health, Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1998.
Page 85 about 10 teaspoons of sugar: Jacobson, Liquid Candy, 2005.
Page 85 CSPI did an update: Jacobson, Liquid Candy, 2005.
Page 85 “Soft drinks make no”: Usha Lee McFarling, “Food Police in a Fizz over Nation’s Huge Thirst for Soda Pop,” Knight-Ridder Newspapers, October 22, 1998.
Page 86 established the Tobacco Industry Research Committee: David Michaels, Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2008), 6.
Page 86 “Industry has learned”: Michaels, x.
Page 86 Knowing that it is nearly impossible: