Sweet Poison
The death of a one-year old baby in Wellawaya as a result of drinking a 'soft drink' comes as a shock. Two more had been admitted to hospital after the consumption of the drink. Similar deaths have occurred just a month ago; soft drink poisoning.
As usual in this country no one had been pulled up. The authorities have placed the blame on hapless wayside vendors for keeping the soft drinks in the "hot sun." Here we come to the pertinent question. Who is responsible? Obviously the soft drink manufacturers would say the obvious thing. Maybe they do use the approved ingredients, but how safe is the approved ingredient? Is it the manufacturer? The trader? Or the consumer (The parent)? The laissez-faire doctrine has a safe way out. Buyer beware. So did the authorities having also been quoted as saying, "trader kept the bottles in hot sun".
But we are ignoring some important issues here.
Sure enough, the traders should be regulated but has anybody questioned the ingredients that go into these heavily advertised gas and water mix? There are many things that go into the ingredients. But many are in codes--to be precise in a thing called E-Code. We wonder how many of our readers know what an E-Code is. Definitely it cannot be 'electronic code' to appear on food labels. It is a number system to identify artificial food additives. E apparently stands for Europe. In the first place we don't know if the manufacturer is honest to his label. Even then we do not know how many of the Sri Lankan consumers--particularly soft drink consumers--read through the label before drinking!
Nor do the situations of soft drink consumption be conducive for a read thru. So much for Consumer Safety.
Moving over most importantly, what is the regulation governing the inclusion of ingredients? In a tropical country, where sunlight and heat are abundant, how prudent is it to permit ingredients that break down into dangerous poisons when exposed to sunlight? Considering the massive market and turnover of soft drink bottles, is it possible to practically observe the storing instructions?
Look at this excerpt: This is regarding a VERY common preservative found in soft drinks. We would call it X. "X was never proven to be safe…Because X changes brain chemistry and breaks down into a witches’ brew of toxins and tumour agents …"According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), X may cause health concerns if consumed in excess. (Do we have a meter somewhere in our body?) X poisoning may cause neurological symptoms such as headaches, migraines, dizziness, confusion and impaired memory function. It may also cause seizures and tremors, extreme sleepiness, limb numbness, facial pain and restless legs.
This is worse: "Because, under heat and through metabolism, X breaks down into some very dangerous CHEMICALS, including FORMALDEHYDE. Think about cases of diet soda… sitting in a hot warehouse or a single can sitting in your hot car. It's already broken down into dangerous chemicals by the time you drink it.
"Ask yourself, are you really going to take a drop of FORMALDEHYDE with every can. Formaldehyde will DENATURE your organs as you live. It doesn't leave your system."
This is another: “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.
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 (UK) survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale. 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". A British researcher, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said (2007) tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date.
The problem is that we are so behind, that most of our agencies just follow the FDA or FSA (UK). We can't blame them either because of the technology gap. But the irony is that there are so many drugs that have been initially approved by the FDA sorts but which had been banned later.
The government has to make a firm stand on this from the point of manufacturing to make the nation a healthier one.
Why not promote the good old thambili?
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