SHONKY SCIENCE FROM TRAINEE TEACHER

Big-brained Bruce attacks a NineMSN article describing benzoate salts and ascorbic acid in soft drinks interacting to form the known carcinogen, benzene:

Wrong. False. Misleading.

According to the U.S. FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, an April 21, 2006, through May 16, 2007 study uncovered unacceptable benzene concentrations (above 5 parts per billion) in a number of soft drinks, with the highest level at 88.9 ppb. Now this might not be much of a health hazard -- according to Bruce, "not enough to warrant you pooping your pants" -- but it is well above the acceptable level and well above the 12.3 to 19.9 ppb which prompted Perrier to recall 160 million bottles of water.

Maybe this is another of Bruce's intentional errors.