Yikes. It's time to play "What are you drinking?" Somehow we never knew this before, but if you're guzzling certain citrus-flavored sodas, you are also drinking a chemical that makes furniture flame retardant and is banned in Europe and Japan. Still thirsty for that Mountain Dew?
Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is a flame retardant chemical that also happens to blend sugar water and citrus flavoring really, really well. Hence, the plopping it into Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, Sunkist Pineapple, Gatorade Thirst Quencher Orange, Powerade Strawberry Lemonade, Fresca Original Citrus, and Squirt.
You may think, hey, I've been drinking those for years and the worst that's happening is all of my teeth are falling out! But actually, there are other nasty things being done to your body.
Some soda bingers have shown signs of skin lesions, memory loss, and nerve disorders. Which are signs of overexposure to bromine. Like other chemicals in our air, water, and food, these compounds build up and sit around in your body doing bad things. After all, BVO is what they use in plastic components and chair stuffing so it won't burn as quickly. That's not going to be good for your internal organs.
If you willingly ingest chemicals knowing the risks, that's one thing. But when we don't know about the risk, because our government hasn't bothered to do any checking since the 1970s, as other countries ban this substance, that's another thing. We should be spreading the word and emptying our refrigerators until this chemical is gone from our favorite citrus sodas.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be flame retardant on the inside.
Do you drink these sodas?
Image via Keoni Cabral/Flickr
