After the pesticide controversy in India, the soft drinks industry has been hit by another scare. Latest research by a British scientist shows that a preservative used in cold drinks could switch off vital parts of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), causing serious damage to cells particularly in children.
Sodium benzoate or E211 has been used as a preservative for decades by the £74-billion global carbonated drinks industry. It is used to kill yeast, bacteria, and fungi in soft drinks, jam, fruit juice and salad dressing. When mixed with vitamin C, it forms benzene, a carcinogenic substance.
The preservative is also found naturally in cranberries, prunes, greengages, cinnamon, ripe cloves and apples. Peter Piper, a molecular biology expert at Sheffield University, studied the preservative and found that it could damage an important part of DNA called mitochondria. “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it, they knock it out altogether,” said Piper.
“The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases now being tied to damage to this part of DNA. Parkinson’s and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing can be caused by the damage.”
However, makers of drinks like Coca-Cola, Fanta and Diet Pepsi insisted that experts had rigorously assessed the additive before it had been approved for use. Coca-Cola said all their ingredients had been approved as safe by the food regulatory authorities in Britain and the European Union (EU), from where they take their guidance. A spokesman for Britvic, which makes Diet Pepsi, said: “We will only use ingredients that are thoroughly tested and approved for use by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Britain and approved by the EU.”
Piper claimed that tests on sodium benzoate carried out by the European Union and the US Food and Drug Administration were too old to be reliable, the online edition of the Daily Mail reported on Sunday. “By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago. My concern is for children who are drinking large amounts,” said Piper.
Norman Baker, the chairman of the British Parliament’s all-party environment group, came out with a firm endorsement of Piper’s call for further tests. “Professor Piper has studied this for some years. So, we should be taking his concerns seriously. I will be writing to the FSA to ask them to carry out further investigation, and I would advise parents to make sure there is no over-exposure to these drinks for their children,” said Baker.
In India, the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had earlier tested Pepsi and Coca-Cola products and had announced that it found four toxic residues after testing 12 of their major brands. “Some of these residues were carcinogenic,” claimed CSE director Sunita Narain. As a result of CSE’s report, several states including the Kerala had banned cold drinks manufactured by Pepsi and Coca Cola in their states.
WHO Urges All Countries To Ban Smoking
Swami Ramdev ji is always completely against Smoking and drinking and tells people to leave it completely to get full benefit from yogasan and pranayams.
Considering this fact in mind, I will keep on posting articles against all such things. This is against smoking and none other but World Health Organization (WHO) is endorsing it:-
Coinciding with Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging all countries to bring in a 100 per cent ban on smoking in indoor public places and workplaces and has released its new policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
"The evidence is clear, there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in a prepared statement earlier this week.
"Many countries have already taken action. I urge all countries that have not yet done so to take this immediate and important step to protect the health of all by passing laws requiring all indoor workplaces and public places to be 100 per cent smoke-free," she added.
Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 known chemicals, with more than 50 of them known to cause cancer, said the WHO.
More than 5 million deaths a year are caused by tobacco, making it the leading preventable cause of death in the world. The developing world is seeing the fastest growth in tobacco use, and half of tobacco-related deaths occur there. If this growth continues, 80 per cent of tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.
Also, exposure to second hand smoke causes heart disease and premature death in adults due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Workplace exposure to tobacco smoke is estimated to kill 200,000 workers a year, and the WHO estimates that 700 million children, that is half the world's minors, breathe in tobacco smoke, mostly at home.
In the six years between 1999 and 2005, the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted the Global Youth Tobacco Survey where youngsters aged 13 to 15 in 132 countries were interviewed about their exposure and attitude to tobacco smoke. More than three quarters of the youngsters favoured a ban on smoking in public places.
The survey also showed that 44 per cent of the young interviewees breathed in tobacco smoke at home while 56 per cent of them were exposed to it in public places.
The WHO is not alone in highlighting the dangers to children from second hand smoke. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), breathing in second hand smoke harms children by causing "asthma, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis and pneumonia and ear infections".
The EPA suggests that American children's exposure to second hand smoke is responsible for:
The WHO's new policy recommendations draw on the conclusions of three new major reports:
The end of next month, on 30th June in Bangkok, sees the start of the Second Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, where participating countries will discuss the practicalities of protection against exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
Acting Director of the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative, Dr Douglas Bettcher, speaking about the Second Conference of the Parties, said that:
"This topic should matter to everyone, because everyone benefits from smoke-free places."
"With this year's theme, we hope that everyone, especially policy makers and employers, will be inspired to claim, create and enjoy spaces that are 100 per cent free from tobacco smoke. By doing so, we keep the bodies inside those spaces smoke-free too, and greatly increase our effectiveness in preventing serious diseases and saving lives in future generations," he added.
World No Tobacco Day is celebrated all over the world in different ways, with marches, workshops to help people stop smoking, educational meetings, and various campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of second hand smoke.
Last year, Michael R Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, announced his intention to donate 125 million dollars over the next two years toward ending the global tobacco epidemic. The money will be awarded in the form of grants, and applications are sought from the 15 high burden countries in particular: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, the Russian Federation, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.
Considering this fact in mind, I will keep on posting articles against all such things. This is against smoking and none other but World Health Organization (WHO) is endorsing it:-
Coinciding with Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging all countries to bring in a 100 per cent ban on smoking in indoor public places and workplaces and has released its new policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
"The evidence is clear, there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in a prepared statement earlier this week.
"Many countries have already taken action. I urge all countries that have not yet done so to take this immediate and important step to protect the health of all by passing laws requiring all indoor workplaces and public places to be 100 per cent smoke-free," she added.
Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 known chemicals, with more than 50 of them known to cause cancer, said the WHO.
More than 5 million deaths a year are caused by tobacco, making it the leading preventable cause of death in the world. The developing world is seeing the fastest growth in tobacco use, and half of tobacco-related deaths occur there. If this growth continues, 80 per cent of tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.
Also, exposure to second hand smoke causes heart disease and premature death in adults due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Workplace exposure to tobacco smoke is estimated to kill 200,000 workers a year, and the WHO estimates that 700 million children, that is half the world's minors, breathe in tobacco smoke, mostly at home.
In the six years between 1999 and 2005, the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted the Global Youth Tobacco Survey where youngsters aged 13 to 15 in 132 countries were interviewed about their exposure and attitude to tobacco smoke. More than three quarters of the youngsters favoured a ban on smoking in public places.
The survey also showed that 44 per cent of the young interviewees breathed in tobacco smoke at home while 56 per cent of them were exposed to it in public places.
The WHO is not alone in highlighting the dangers to children from second hand smoke. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), breathing in second hand smoke harms children by causing "asthma, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis and pneumonia and ear infections".
The EPA suggests that American children's exposure to second hand smoke is responsible for:
- An increase in the number of asthma attacks and severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1 million children with asthma.
- Between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (for children under 18 months), and
- Respiratory tract infections that result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospital admissions every year.
The WHO's new policy recommendations draw on the conclusions of three new major reports:
- Monograph 83 Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC),
- The United States Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, and
- The California Environmental Protection Agency's Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant.
The end of next month, on 30th June in Bangkok, sees the start of the Second Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, where participating countries will discuss the practicalities of protection against exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
Acting Director of the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative, Dr Douglas Bettcher, speaking about the Second Conference of the Parties, said that:
"This topic should matter to everyone, because everyone benefits from smoke-free places."
"With this year's theme, we hope that everyone, especially policy makers and employers, will be inspired to claim, create and enjoy spaces that are 100 per cent free from tobacco smoke. By doing so, we keep the bodies inside those spaces smoke-free too, and greatly increase our effectiveness in preventing serious diseases and saving lives in future generations," he added.
World No Tobacco Day is celebrated all over the world in different ways, with marches, workshops to help people stop smoking, educational meetings, and various campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of second hand smoke.
Last year, Michael R Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, announced his intention to donate 125 million dollars over the next two years toward ending the global tobacco epidemic. The money will be awarded in the form of grants, and applications are sought from the 15 high burden countries in particular: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, the Russian Federation, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.
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