WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- JunkScience.com responded today to the claim by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) that the caramel coloring used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other foods is contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals.
CSPI's claim is based on studies in which laboratory rats were given extremely high doses of 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4-methylimidazole (4-MI). But such studies are entirely unreliable indicators of cancer-causing affects in humans, simply because lab rats are not little people.
In addition to vastly different physiologies, lab rats are bred to be prone to getting cancer. Lab rats are so sensitive to cancer, in fact, that merely varying the quantity of food they consume affects their risk levels.
Moreover, even assuming for the sake of argument that the rat studies were relevant to cancer risk in humans, JunkScience.com calculates that a person would have to consume about 154,000 20-ounce bottles of cola per day to be exposed to the same dose of 4-MI as the lab rats. This is obviously impossible.
"CSPI has a long history of foisting junk science-fueled scares on the public, " said JunkScience.com publisher Steve Milloy. "I guess we'll be adding a new chapter to our review of CSPI's history of food terrorism, 'False Alarm: A Report on the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1971-2006,'" added Milloy.
The report is on the web at: http://www.junkscience.com/falsealarm.pdf.