Soda’s cloudy health history

The next time you grab a Mountain Dew, Squirt, Fanta Orange, Sunkist Pineapple, Gatorade Thirst Quencher Orange, Powerade Strawberry-Lemonade or Fresca Original Citrus, take a look at the drink’s ingredients. In Mountain Dew, brominated vegetable oil, which was patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant and banned in food throughout Europe and Japan, is listed next to last. But BVO has been added to sodas for decades in North America, and now some scientists have a renewed interest in this little-known ingredient, found in 10 percent of sodas in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration limit for brominated oil in sodas is based on outdated data from the 1970s, so today’s scientists say the chemical deserves a fresh look. Their concern is that it builds up in tissues and may have the same effects as brominated flame retardants. After a few extreme soda binges, for instance, a few patients have needed medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders, all symptoms of overexposure to bromine.

In the United States, 85 percent of kids drink a beverage containing sugar or artificial sweetener at least once per week. Sodas are the largest source of calories for teenagers between the ages of 14 to 18, according to a National Cancer Institute study. For adults, soda, energy and sports drinks are the fourth largest source of calories, a federal study found. The most popular sodas—Coca-Cola and Pepsi—do not contain BVO.

Hold a bottle of Mountain Dew to a light: It’s cloudy. Brominated vegetable oil creates the cloudy look by keeping the fruity flavor mixed in the drink. Without an emulsifier such as BVO, the flavoring would float to the surface. The FDA limits the use of BVO to 15 parts per million in fruit-flavored beverages.

Brominated vegetable oil, which is derived from soybean or corn, contains bromine atoms, which weigh down the citrus flavoring so it mixes with sugar water, or in the case of flame retardants, slows down chemical reactions that cause a fire.

Brominated flame retardants lately are under intense scrutiny because research has shown that they are building up in people’s bodies, including breast milk, around the world. They are added to polystyrene foam cushions used in upholstered furniture and children’s products, as well as plastics used in electronics. Research in animals as well as some human studies have found links to impaired neurological development, reduced fertility, early onset of puberty and altered thyroid hormones.

BVO may not be in use today as a flame retardant in furniture foam, but patents in Europe and in the United States keep that possibility alive.

“There are some concerns [about BVO], because people are worried that maybe it has the behavior [and] potential health effects similar to brominated flame retardants,” said Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist at Duke University who specializes in studying brominated compounds.

Soda makers and industry groups say they are not concerned about the safety of BVO, saying their products meet all government standards.

“This is a safe ingredient approved by the FDA, which is used in some citrus-based beverages,” said Christopher Gindlesperger of the American Beverage Association, which represents PepsiCo Inc., maker of Mountain Dew.

Some experts are unconvinced, saying that the FDA standards are based on decades-old data.

“Compounds like these that are in widespread use probably should be re-examined periodically with newer technologies to ensure that there aren’t effects that would have been missed by prior methods,” said Charles Vorhees, a toxicologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, who studied BVO’s neurological effects in the early 1980s.

Data in rats show that BVO could be toxic. A 1971 study by Canadian researchers found that rats fed a diet containing 0.5 percent brominated oils grew heavy hearts and developed lesions in their heart muscle. In a later study in 1983, rats fed the same oils had behavioral problems, and those fed 1 percent BVO had trouble conceiving. At 2 percent, they were unable to reproduce.

The diets in that study had “whopping doses” of BVO, about 100-times higher than today’s allowable limit, said Vorhees, lead author of the 1983 study.

But two case studies in the past 15 years show that “whopping doses” also can occur in people—with unhealthy consequences.

Virtually every teen in America plays video games, according to the Pew Research Center. The $110-billion-a-year soft-drink industry and the $74-billion-a-year video-game industry have noticed. Activision, the makers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, paired with Mountain Dew in a promotion that rewards gamers with bonus points for drinking more Mountain Dew.

In 1997, emergency-room doctors at UC Davis reported a patient with severe bromine intoxication from drinking 2 to 4 liters of orange soda every day. He developed headaches, fatigue, ataxia (loss of muscle coordination) and memory loss.

In a 2003 case reported in Ohio, a 63-year-old man developed ulcers on his swollen hands after drinking 8 liters of Ruby Red Squirt every day for several months. The man was diagnosed with bromoderma, a rare skin hypersensitivity to bromine exposure. The patient quit drinking the brominated soft drink and months later recovered.

Reactions this severe may not be a concern in the general population, the study’s doctors said.

“Any normal level of consumption of BVO would not cause any health problems—except the risk of diabetes and obesity from drinking that much sugar water,” said Zane Horowitz, medical director of the Oregon Poison Center and author of the 1997 case study.

But in the video-game scene, a normal level of consumption is not normal. Everyone, it seems, knows someone habitually needing a fuel fix and consuming enough to up his or her risk.