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Coca-Cola and Pepsi Change Recipe To Avoid Cancer Warning
jones_supa writes "California has added 4-methylimidazole (a caramel coloring) to the list of carcinogenic compounds that require an explicit warning when added to foodstuffs. Incidentally, this has entailed the big two cola producers to modify their recipe to decrease the amount of the substance — just enough to avoid the warning. The change to the recipe has already been introduced in California but will be rolled out across the U.S. to streamline manufacturing. The American Beverage Association noted that there is not enough evidence to show the coloring to cause cancer in humans."
How do we know that California doesn't cause cancer? How can we be sure? Is there a proximity? Do people in Nevada get some sort of horrible sickness?
Except the TSA body scanners... those are very safe. Unlike the food coloring in cola that is cancer in a bottle.
The same 1000 cans argument can be made for aspartame as a sweetner, tail pipe exhaust, and smoking crack. What if you're that one person with a a genetic predisposition to get cancer from this substance? We should be doing what the EU has done for years- make manufacturers prove substances are safe for consumption before including them as ingredients.
Stay skeptical, my friends.
There you go assuming that the labels are accurate in a practical sense. The joke is that California requires that warning on many so many chemicals with so tenuous a connection to cancer that it's basically impossible to use as an actual warning. That problem is exacerbated by the potential lawsuits when not issueing the warning, the fact that there's no exposure/penalty for warning unnecessarily, and the lack of specificity you noted. The net effect is that if you see such a notice you can rest assured that some chemical compound nearby that you may or may not actually be exposed to might possibly have some connection to cancer at some concentration that may or not actually be present... or someone just wants to cover his ass and not get sued. Not a lot of information content.
Why does the land of fruits and nuts get to dictate what's in our Cokes? and what ever happened to personal responsibility? why must we baby proof the world? hell living causes cancer, we gonna stick warnings on babies next? Oh and before anybody says its because of the rising cost of healthcare (while ignoring the average 3000% profits the drug companies are making is what's causing the incredible explosion of cost) let me retort with this modest proposal: I'll be happy to sign an iron clad wavier that says if i get cancer the ONLY thing I'll get is plain old morphine (which is cheap) and in return you remove ALL TAXES and hand me a get out of jail free card which covers pretty much any sin law, so no more taxes on cigarettes and beer, no more throwing me in jail if I want to smoke a joint, deal? watch how quick your weaselly congress critters balk at that proposal, why? because all those taxes are going to pretty much anything BUT healthcare, its just another way they can raise taxes without the masses balking. Hell mine spent the cigarette taxes on a trauma center when there wasn't a damned thing wrong with the one we had, why? "Because the state next door had a nicer one that we did", yeah like smokers are constantly rushed to trauma centers and we are all four years old, God forbid someone has something nicer than us!
basically the whole thing stinks. no matter how much you dumb down the planet all you are gonna get is bigger dipshits. if you give ANYTHING in massive doses to mice its gonna kill them, hell even water. Maybe we should put a warning label about water too, along with a giant arrow that shows the idiots which end of the bottle the liquid comes out of, geez.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Because CA has gotten to the point where they label anything that might conceivably cause cancer in doses 1000s of times higher than anyone would normally be exposed to. Yes, we know, everything causes cancer in high doses.
Hell, fast food joints have Prop-65 warnings because cooking potatoes and coffee causes a trace amount of some chemical to form in certain circumstances, which causes cancer in high doses. Yes, they have reason to be dismissive and laugh because reason has left the building.