June 2, 2007:
New studies have raised fresh fears about
health hazards associated with soft drinks.
According to Professor Peter Piper, molecular
biologist and a researcher at Sheffield University
in the United Kingdom, the preservative called
sodium benzoate causes cell damage, says a report
in the British newspaper The Independent. The
damage could lead to diseases like cirrhosis of
the liver and Parkinson’s.
Peter Piper says his research shows that sodium
benzoate damages DNA.
According to internet health source FeedBurner,
sodas like Fanta and Pepsi Max are among those
that contain the preservative sodium benzoate.
Research has not been done on the substance in
decades, says Peter Piper, and its safety needs to
be re-evaluated using modern methods.
Professor Piper’s research, which suggests that
benzoate contributes to faster ageing and
degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s,
increases the pressure on makers of soft drinks to
find alternative ways to preserve their products.
However, Richard Laming, of the British Soft
Drinks Association, has defended the industry’s
continued use of sodium benzoate by saying that
sodium benzoate is approved for use by the United
Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency and that the
industry follows the guidance of the regulatory
According to Richard Laming, sodium benzoate is
“the most effective preservative currently
authorised” and it is used widely in soft drinks
and is included in 44 new food and drink products
across the United Kingdom in 2006.
Yet, it is the third time in about one year that
sodium benzoate, also known as E211 in the
European Union, has been publicly linked with
In 2006, an investigation by BeverageDaily.com
revealed that soft drinks industry leaders had
known that sodium benzoate may break down to form
benzene, a potentially cancerous chemical, in
drinks also containing ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
or citric acid.
More recently, sodium benzoate was one of seven
‘E-numbers’ linked to behavioural problems in
Professor Piper says the livers of some children
livers are “working overtime” to process the
amount of sodium benzoate entering their bodies.
Piper, who tested benzoate on yeast cells in his
laboratory, found that the preservative sodium
benzoate induced an increase in the production of
oxygen radicals, or free radicals, which several
studies have linked to serious illnesses and
ageing in general.
In the study, first completed in 1999, benzoate
appeared to attack the ‘power station’ of the
cells, known as the mitochondria. Sodium benzoate
damaged the cells’ ability to prevent the oxygen
leaks that creates free radicals. Too much alcohol
is believed to inflict similar damage on the
Yeast cells were used because of their similarity
to human cells, but no research on humans has yet
Professor Piper has called for new safety tests on
sodium benzoate, taking into account a growing
body of science on free radicals.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT