Robots Dropped in Ocean to Detect and Clean Oil!

When you think of the millions spent on the BP oil spill (largest oil spill  in U.S. history and second-largest in world history) just two years ago, and the millions of marine life and 11 people killed, you can't help but wonder if anything is happening to prevent this from ever occurring again. 

Credit: GreenPeace/http://www.danielbeltra.com/

Fear not! Scientists have recently developed both a robotic fish that can detect pollution in the ocean and a robot that can be dropped from a helicopter to clean up the pollution/oil spills.

The robotic fish was developed by European scientists to improve pollution monitoring, with the goal of reducing the time it takes for detection of a pollutant from weeks to seconds. Note that this robotic fish could also be used for under water national security, aquariums, diver monitoring and search or rescue efforts.

The robotics are designed in the shape of fish, 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and cost a staggering $31,600 (20,000 pounds) each and are made to sim like real fish would. Indeed, the fish swim independently, can co-ordinate with each other and transmit their readings back to a shore station up to a 1 km away!!  Although the cost is very high, when you consider the dollars spent on relief efforts for cleaning up so many horrific oil spills over in the past, not to mention the millions given to families who lost jobs, it seems like pennies. Note that these robotic fish are also fitted with sensors to pick up pollutants leaking from ships or undersea pipelines. 

Yanko Robots Designed to Clean up Oil and Filter Water Back into Ocean
Source: http://www.yankodesign.com/2012/05/21/sea-cleaning-drone/

Now that we have sorted out how to find the pollutant, how do we clean it up? There is a very neat concept by Yanko Design that just came out which consists of a small robot that can swim/propel itself and has a   built in pump to separate out water from oil. It also has a compartment with bacteria that can degrade oil! The cleverest part is an "acoustic wave device" that emits high-frequency sound waves designed to keep animals at bay, so they don't join the ranks of the oil-soaked creatures that rarely survive.

source: http://www.yankodesign.com/2012/05/21/sea-cleaning-drone/

Starbucks Talks Sustainability

When you go to Starbucks, do you recycle the lid or cup? I didn't think so. 

Despite a somewhat unmatchable brand loyalty in the coffee space, Starbucks still takes heat due to the potential negative environmental impact of its disposable cups. 

Starbucks is now rising up and taking action to become more sustainable. Recently, they rolled out plastic cups for cold beverages that are produced with polypropylene cups and lids, and launching new lightweight plastic cups to reduce resin consumption. In addition, Starbucks has a goal of making 100% of its cups reusable or recyclable by 2015.

In an attempt to find a solution to this recycling issue, Starbucks has launched an in-store recycling program at selected stores.While the program has hit some hiccups along the way, the company said it is committed to eventually offering in-store recycling on a wide scale.

Currently, Starbucks is working with ConAgra Foods to make their coffee cups recyclable. What is preventing this from happening is the non-recylcable polymer adhered onto the inside of their cups to prevent leak. 

Conagra Foods are different in that they use post-industrial recycled polylactic acid and convert it into shrink film packaging materials (i.e. the inside lining of Starbucks coffee cups). The company's PLA shrink film contains more than 50% post-industrial recycled material, and it uses this material for tamper-evident seals on some of ConAgra Foods' table spreads. However, the CEO of Conagra Foods still recognizes the limitation of PLA based bio-plastics and their researchers are working hard to make sure no plastic/contamination occurs within the cups with PLA shrink film adhered to them (i.e. increased thermal stability). Below is a quote that expresses the CEO's concerns more thoroughly...

 "We know there are challenges with PLA and how it can impact the bottle-to-bottle recycling strategy," she said. "But we have strict restrictions on PLA and we make sure it doesn't stay with the package because we don't want potential contamination."

By collaborating with its suppliers, Conagra has been able to convert 260,000 pounds of resin from non-renewable resources (PVC and PET g) to PLA (plastic derived from starch). It will be exciting to learn more about what Conagra can do for food companies to reduce their environmental waste and make their materials more sustainable.

Packaging Being Grown!

Just when you think you have seen it all, you may have to guess again. A company named Ecovative has just come out with a packaging material made from mushrooms...yes, mushrooms.

Source: http://www.ecovativedesign.com

According to their website, they don’t manufacture these materials, we grow them. Indeed, Ecovative claims to "grow the plastic from agricultural byproducts and mycelium- a fungal network of threadlike cells. It’s like the “roots” of mushrooms. In 5 – 7 days, in the dark, with no watering, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium digests the agricultural byproducts, binding them into a beautiful structural material. The mycelium acts like a natural, self assembling glue." This seems like an interesting concept, but I am not sure how sustainable it is (i.e. how many mushrooms are required for one packaging material?). What I do like though is that little energy is required for the system's (i.e. produced in the dark). However, more information is necessary (i.e. life cycle analysis) for a sound opinion on the material. For instance, often mushrooms are grown in faecal matter and have to be cleaned prior to shipping/use, and I am sure the mycelium extraction process is no different

Mycelium inside Biocomposite (i.e. plastic foaming agent)
Source: http://www.ecovativedesign.com/about-our-materials/core-tech/

So how do they differ from traditional bio-plastics? Well, "he mycelium is able to grow on agricultural byproducts like plant stalks and seed husks. Ecovative says that they can use a broad range of feedstocks as well to create diverse material properties, and tune the specifications for the application... "We can tweak the density, strength, texture, appearance and more to deliver exactly the performance you need to protect your product."  ...I must say that the "tweak" seems more qualitative and solid quantitative scientific studies.

All in all, I say "good for Ecoverte for thinking outside the box and trying to develop more sustainable packaging materials." 

PUMA to Launch Compostable Clothing

When you think of the mega-successful apparel company “Puma”, the last thing that comes to mind is “compostable clothing”. Well, you better believe it because Puma has been making some serious changes to its sustainability initiatives and has come out as a front-runner in many areas.

Recently, when Puma was asked by Reuters if the company would end its business relationship with Yonguor Textile of China, they didn’t hesitate to take action. Indeed, the question was raised after Greenpeace published a report profiling the problem of toxic water pollution resulting from the release of hazardous chemicals by textile factories in China such as Yongour. Puma didn’t completely end its relationship with Yongour, but they did decide to take responsibility. In fact, in a statement Puma released on July 26^th, 2011 the company said it recognizes the urgent need for reducing and eliminating industrial releases of all hazardous chemicals and is committed to “eliminating the discharges of all hazardous chemicals from the whole lifecycle and all production procedures that are associated with the making and using of PUMA products by 2020.”

Last year, Puma even launched its Clever Little Bag, a reusable bag to replace shoeboxes made from 65% less paper and energy. Now, It’s leading the way in materials technology and trying to tackle what will happen to their goods once people no longer want to use them.

Instead of taking the approach for customers to “buy less”, Puma wants their clothes to be compostable!  This will close their lifecycle loop and allow them to hopefully reduce their impact on the environment. Puma is confident that compostable clothes and sneakers will be the future. 

Compostable clothing may be something of the future, but if you follow industry closely, you will realize that it is not that bizarre. In fact, Anke Domask, who is a German fashion designer and mircobiologist, recently developed a clothing line from milk fibers. She has come up with an easy and environmentally friendly way to extract fibres from milk and her designs are proving very successful. Additionally, Linda Loudermilk, at Miami Swim Week this wear debuted a completely compostable swimsuit!

Compostable clothing certainly is an innovative idea and if promoted by a major brand like Puma, could soon become mainstream. Finally, a company is eager to reduce their environmental footprint …and go about it in the right way!

Worlds First Biodegradable Running Shoe Sole

The worlds first sustainable performance running shoe! When it comes to sustainability, it's time for running gear to lead the way, not follow.


This running shoe was made by BioMoGo and utilizes recycled and other earth-friendly components. Constructed with roughly half as many parts as comparable shoes, the Green Silence requires less petroleum and energy to make. Of course, the shoe manages all of this while delivering the premium performance expected from Brooks.

                                         image: brooks


The Key Green Features Are:

• BioMoGo, the world's first-ever biodegradable midsole for running shoes
• 75% of the shoe's materials are post-consumer recycled
• Biodegradable insole and collar foams
• Packaging is 100% post-consumer recycled
• Laces, gillies, and reinforced webbing are 100% post-consumer recycled
• Water-based adhesives are used throughout
• All dyes and colorants are non-toxic

source :http://www.brooksrunning.com/The-Green-Silence/green_silence,default,pg.html

World Vanilla Shortage

You may think twice this summer before buying that tub of your favorite vanilla ice cream. Wholesale prices have risen by around 20 per cent in just two months – an increase which will hit thousands of food and drink manufactures, including ice cream makers. 

“The stocks in the world are being run down and we are getting to a point now where we are likely to see the price suddenly shoot upwards,” said Nick Peksa, business development director at market analysts Mintec. 

Many people don't know that there is a major vanilla shortage occurring around the world. According to Mintec, the production of vanilla in Mexico alone has fallen by 90% in the past year. As a result, panic buying has begun driving up stock prices. In fact, widespread stockpiling of Madagascan black-vanilla has pushed up the prices up even further because of a recent rush order which entailed around 40% of the world supply of black vanilla (~1000 tonnes). Note that Indonesia also produces black-vanilla, alongside India and Mexico, but these countries have been experiencing a massive reduction in production.

So what is "black-vanilla" you ask? Black-vanilla is just a fancy name for "food grade vanilla". It is called black-vanilla because of the color of the dried pods harvested from the orchids. As previously mentioned, it is only grown in a small handful of countries and as a result its price is susceptible to poor harvest.

As global warming is taking effect and the population continues to escalate, we are seeing more and more how precious our resources are; especially vanilla. In fact, vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world – after saffron – because it is so labor intensive. 

According to Mr. Peksa from Mintec “Vanilla is the most expensive ingredient in ice cream production per kilogram, so it is highly likely that some producers will not be able to absorb the extra cost. This could push the price of ice cream up by around 10 per cent.”

 

3-D Printing Creates Toy Car Size of a Grain of Sand!

When you think of 3D printed objects, the last thing that comes to mind is something as small as a grain of sand. Well, you better believe it because researchers in Austria at the University of Vienna have set a new world speed record for the fastest 3D-printed nano-objects.

Their latest task was to get the printer to make a race car model the size of a grain of sand. The race car was 0.285mm in length and created in just over four minutes. Incredible! To get an even better perspective, in order to produce this car approximately 100 layers had to be overlapped of nano-size sand, each consisting of 200 single printed lines.

So what is this good for? Well, the scientists say that the technique could be used to make small biomedical parts.

The problem in the past was the time taken to do this. In fact, the technology itself is not novel in science, but what is novel is how fast they were able to accomplish the given task using their set-up and materials. In an interview with the BBC, the scientist said that "they can speed up the original process by a factor of 500 or in some cases 1,000 times."

What is this special process that is able to do create such mind-blowing things? The formal name for the process is called "two-photon lithography." What happens here, is a laser beam is focused onto a liquid resin. This laser focusing, immediately hardens the resin, leaving behind a line of solid polymer just a few nanometers wide. Generally, 3-D printing techniques build up objects by adding layers to the surface, but what makes this process different is that the laser can create solid material anywhere within the liquid material.

Specifically, the researchers breakthrough entailed improving the control mechanism for mirrors used to focus the laser, and developing the special type of resin involved in the process.

Even more amazing is that the researchers are now going to develop bio-compatible resins so that the objects they create can be used by doctors. An example application is to create scaffolds which cells could use to build new biological tissues.

Beautifully Animated Video on Water Conservation

Pure Inspiration: How Sara Blakely Turned $5000 Into A Billion Dollars

Carbon Dioxide Absorbing Labels

So many companies today won't switch their packaging to make it more sustainable (compostable, biodegradable). Often this comes down to cost as industry has to pay x-dollars annually to recycle or dispose of their packaging. 

Yes, recycling plastic is better than throwing it away and it being sent to a landfill but the process uses a lot of energy (manufacturing, sorting, shipping) and the plastics have to be incinerated which often releases toxins into the atmosphere. In fact, last year, of the 28.9 million tons of plastic packaging generated, only 5.7% was recycled or reused in some way, and 94.3% was sent to a landfill and discarded or combusted into the environment.[i]

If companies and citizens do not take responsibility and an interest in this matter soon, the amount of waste generated is going to reach an incredible high, and result in unforgivable damage to the ecosystem. Datamonitor.com, a world-leading provider of premium global business information, is already predicting market production for containers and packaging to reach to 8.7 million tonnes by the end of 2013, representing a current annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.6% for the 2008-2013 period. 

Since it is difficult to completely eliminate the whole incineration process involved when companies recycle their plastics, Sato America has come up with a solution to reduce the impact on the environment while adapting these existing practices. They have created an ECONANO® series of labels that absorb and reduce the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when the labels are incinerated.

So how is it possible for a label to absorb carbon dioxide? Well, Sato America Inc., a leader in barcode printing, has created a special carbon dioxide absorbent to the label's adhesive that reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released at the point of incineration by more than 20% compared with conventional labels. Even better, than when this technology is combined with their SATO’s NONSEPA® liner-less label series, it is possible to achieve an approximate 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions at the time of incineration, the company claims.

To better understand the scope of SATO's environmental claims, they provide an example on their website that put these statistics into perspective...

"If you were to replace 1 million 50mm x 85mm standard labels used over the course of one year with ECONANO® labels, the CO₂ released at incineration would be reduced by 224kg. This is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ released during the manufacture, treatment and incineration of 4,814 plastic bags."

Note that this ECONANO® lable was developed by the SATO Group in collaboration with Professor Masahiko Abe of the Tokyo University of Science, and the University’s venture company, ACTiiVE.

In a recent interview, found on SatoAmerica's website they had all but good things to say about ECONANO and their company objectives...

"Reducing carbon emissions is a challenge for all businesses today,” said Etsuo Fujii, President of SATO CORPORATION. But the cutting-edge technology SATO employs in its ECONANO® series labels offers our customers a helping-hand in achieving their environmental targets, and provides them with solutions beneficial to all levels of consumer goods product identification and supply chain labeling."

What's most intriguing about this new product is how SATO is working with the current system set in place for disposing of plastics, instead of inventing something completely new that countries don't have the proper infrastructure to support.

 

References

---

[i] Ruixiang, Z., Torley, P., Halley, P. (2008) Emerging biodegradable materials: starch- and protein-based bio-nanocomposites. Journal of Material Science, 43, 3058-3071.

Reusable Grocery Bags: Shocking Scary New Study!

When using a reusable grocery bag made from cloth or plastic, the last thing you think of is it harming you in any way. Everyone seems so proud of themselves for reusing these bags instead of taking the kind that you use once and throw away; contributing to the billions of plastic bags sent to landfills every year. However, what most people don't know is how many pathogens these bags are carrying.

In a shocking new study conducted by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California, it was found that 12% of re-useable bags contained Escherichia coli (E.Coli)!!! Even more disturbing, is that when meat juices were added to the bags and stored in the trunks of cars for two hours, there was a two-fold increase in the number of bacteria, indicating the potential for bacteria growth in these bags! The purpose of this study was to assess the potential for cross-contamination of food products from reusable bags used to carry groceries.

Think about it, when you buy chicken you have a routine of cleaning your hands before and after handling it, followed by washing the surrounding kitchen counter. Did you ever think of washing the reusable bag? Most people don't because lets face it, we are so used to using plastic bags that you just throw out after putting the groceries away. What we fail to think of is the cereal box that was also put in the grocery bag which could have punctured the plastic wrap surrounding the chicken. If this did occur it could result in chicken juice leaking into the bag and thus possible salmonella contamination.

I have also noticed that people tend to reuse their petroleum plastic bags (the kind that you are supposed to throw away) to their carry lunches to school or work. Remember that bacteria aren’t picky and if that bag had been carrying raw meat, there’s always the potential of pathogenic bacteria being present, it doesn’t take much.  

When researchers from the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University took random reusable grocery bags from consumers as they entered the grocery stores in California and Arizona, what they found was disturbing. Indeed, a large number of bacteria were found in almost all of the bags and coliform bacterial was found in HALF. Even more interesting was that when the researchers interviewed customers, it was found that reusable bags are seldom if ever washed and often used for multiple purposes. It is also important to note that no bacteria were found in store-bought non-reusable petroleum plastic bags.

So what now? Simple, just clean your reusable grocery bags. In fact, the researchers in the study mentioned said that hand or machine washing, reduced the numbers of bacteria in reusable bags by 99.9 percent.

References

[1]  Gerba, C.P., Williams, D., Sinclair, R.G. (2010) "Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags" University of Arizona (Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science) and Loma Linda University (School of Public Health).

Sewage to Plastic

Have you ever wondered what happens to your organic waste after you flush the toilet? Many people don’t. Did you ever think there was a downstream use for the stuff? How about turning it into biodegradable plastic? I know this seems far-fetched, but not according to a California based company called Micromidas who is doing just that. Micromidas is a new company that locates waste-water treatment plants, sets up a facility on site, takes the organic load and then converts it into plastic in-house.

Whenever I go scouting for new innovation, I say to myself “(a) is this a new product? and can it (b) reduce the impact an existing problem?” If the answer is yes to both, then I know there is a future for this product and my attention is immediately captured. Micromidas has created plastic from sewage that can potentially solve two problems: (a) sewage sludge  and (b) petroleum plastic waste. 

Indeed, the collection and disposable of sewage is very costly, time consuming and damaging to environment. As the cities of the world are expanding, a lot of waste-water facilities are becoming overloaded.  The solids in these facilities are very difficult and costly to remove as you can’t burn them, throw them in the ocean, or dig a whole and stick them in there. 

A lot of the money spent in sewage water disposable involves drying it out, putting it in trucks and just driving until they find an area to dump it. However, when it is dumped it dries out into methane and carbon dioxide... two greenhouse gasses destroying the ozone layer! After it’s all done the trucks go back and get more. It’s a cycle that never ends and involves a lot of manual labor.

Petroleum based plastic is a very involved process when you look at the entire life-cycle. First off, you have to drill down into the earth, pump it up, send it to a refinery, refine it, pull out fractions, send it to a chemical manufacturer who polymerizes it to get a final resin that is sent to a manufacturer....this process goes on forever. Is this very involved process worth making plastic from petroleum that will be used for 5 min and then throw away? In fact, plastic requires 8% of all the world’s oil and, 150 million tons of plastic is “thrown away” every year.  As a result there are literally these huge islands of plastic floating around in the oceans, some of them larger than the state of Texas.

What most people don’t realize is that sewage contains proteins, amino acids, carboyhydrates, simple sugars, fatty acids and fats. Micromidas feeds this sewage to their genetically modified bacteria cocktails. The reason they have a cocktail of bacteria is because no species will preferentially eat all of those ingredients. As a result, the bacteria produce/store a bio-polyester called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) –type of plastic, similar in texture, feel, and properties to the plastic we have been using all of our lives. The only difference of PHA plastic is that enzymes can break it down. 

I always say, that it should not be about what a company is doing, but rather HOW they are doing it. This is exactly the case for Micromidas as it is their process in making biodegradable plastic that I find fascinating and so novel!

Society is using a model to reduce waste that is not working. By that, I mean we as consumers are under the impression that by just using less all of these problems will go away (i.e. cloth grocery bags instead of a plastic grocery bag; tin water bottle versus. plastic water bottle; obsessively shutting the lights off every time we leave the house). Yes, this may buy us some time but it is essentially a false solution and we have to recognize this. What we need to do is find better solutions, and Micromidas has proved that they have.

Learn more by watching this video where John Bissell, the CEO of Micromidas talks about his company...

Safe Texting -Type n' Walk App

Have you ever been driving through a parking lot and someone is walking oblivious to anything and everything around them because they are TEXTING? Or have you ever tripped over a curb or bumped into a person while texting? With all these new technologies emerging, peripheral vision just doesn't cut it when providing enough visual information to help one avoid such obstacles.

Today I discovered this new app called "Type 'n Walk" which lays your keyboard and text box over a visual of what your iPhone's camera sees...so no more worrying about tripping on the curve or colliding with a car while keeping in touch on the go.

To my surprise this app has actually been in the iTunes store since 2009! However, in February it was updated for just $.99. Also, the reviews are very good, averaging three and a half stars out of five.

Click here if you want to view a live demo of the app.

Self Cleaning Plastics

Have you ever put vegetables in the fridge for too long and the Saran wrap that you wrapped them in got all soggy? You're not alone. What if you never had to worry about dirty, microorganism infested plastics? What if the plastic just cleaned itself? This could save companies millions of dollars and put money back in consumers pockets, as they wouldn't have to go back to the grocery store to buy more food.This isn't far from reality thanks researcher led by Lukas C. Gerber at ETH Zurich. 

These Swiss researchers have isolated the fungus from blue cheese -yes, blue cheese - called peniciliium roqueforti and injected it into very thin porous sheets of plastic. The theory was to make plastic protect itself from unwanted bacteria, just like peniciliium roqueforti does to protect the cheese on the inside of a rind.

This could make dish detergents, soaps and sponges extinct!!  In fact, this novel material was called the "first eating material" and was recently described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To prove that their theory of "self-cleaning plastic" was indeed possible, the researchers put a small amount of sugar solution on the plastic and let it go to work. They said in their recently published paper that "“Gas exchange for breathing and transport of nutrient through a nano-porous top layer allowed selective intake of food whilst limiting the microorganism to dwell exclusively in between a confined, well-enclosed area of the material,”

What shocked most people was that two weeks later, the sugar solution had been completely consumed by the fungus, leaving the plastic perfectly clean.  

So, you may be asking "now that the fungus has eaten all the sugar solution, will it continue eating the plastic?" The answer is no. In fact, with nothing to feed on the fungus went dormant again. Incredible!

Yes, two weeks for a plastic material to clean itself might seem like a long time but there are endless applications for this in the marketplace. A lot of the time, salmonella bacteria get's into leafy vegetables that are packaged. If they were wrapped in this type of plastic, the bacteria could possibly reduce food borne bacteria and save millions. Also, what if you went on vacation and came back to moldy bread? The fungus in the plastic could prevent the mold from overgrowing and spoiling all the bread..saving you money. 

This is not the first time though I have heard of fungus' being used with plastics. Last month I read an article about how students from Yale University discovered a fungus in the Amazon that can break down and utilize plastic. According to their research, the pestalotispsis microspora fungi can break down the common plastic called polyurethane. This is incredible as polyurethane plastics cannot be recycled because they cannot be remelted -once formed, they are that way forever. Airplanes are an example of this kind of plastic.

Unlike the polyurethane eating plastic, this "self cleaning plastic" contains a fungus that doesn't break down the plastic as well.

The world of plastic innovation continues to inspire and amaze me.

Cancer Warnings on Coca-Cola Cans -Forcing Company to Change Coloring Ingredient

Have you ever wondered what makes your daily Coke or Pepsi drink that black color? In my opinion, any drink that has to be COLORED BLACK is because consumers most likely wouldn’t buy the soda drink if they saw what the true color looked like after processing. It seems today that there are so many chemicals put into our everyday soda pop that it is hard to keep track of.  

The latest news is that Coca-Cola is changing their formulation to prevent having to write “CANCER WARNING” on their soda cans. This is all because a carcinogen was found in Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi which exceeded the state of California’s 29-migrogram benchmark. What’s even more shocking is that while Pepsi and Coca Cola are altering their coloring to avoid having to write cancer warnings, the DRINK WILL REMAIN THE SAME IN CANADA.

This all boils down to the coloring ingredient called 4-methylimadazole, also known as 4-MEI.  4-MEI forms during the roasting, heating or cooling process of any soy sauce, caramel and molasses. Specifically, the caramel colorings Coca-Cola uses contain ammonia sulphite, which produces 4-MEI as a by-product after heating.  

The U.S. Center for Science in the Public Interest was the organization that tested the Coca-Cola drinks and said that 4-MEI posed a danger to those who drink Coca-Cola. They went on to say that it was linked to cancer in animals during testing and exceeds allowable levels in U.S. food supply. Specifically, the average amount (138 micrograms) found in a 12-ounce can was 4.8 times greater than California's 29 microgram-per-day limit.

California’s strict food laws have forced Coca-Cola to adapt to this crisis and reformulate their caramel color. So far they are the only state making this change as it is under the State of California’s Proposition 65 that food products containing a specific level of cancer-causing chemicals must be labelled... it just so happened that 4-MEI was added to the list in 2011.

Global News says that while Coke and Pepsi complied with this law, spokespeople for both companies disagreed that their products are carcinogenic.

 
“The caramel colour in all of our products has been, is and always will be safe. That is fact. I think it’s important to stress to your readers that the 4-MEI levels in our products pose no health or safety risks. They never have,” Garza Ciarlante told Global News.

Also, the Canadian Beverage Association claims that 4-MEI poses no risk to consumers. Specifically, they said that..

“4-MEI is not a threat to human health... Health regulatory agencies around the globe, including Health Canada, confirm that 4-MEI is safe. This is nothing more than another attempt to scare consumers. Our member's priority is the safety of the products they make and their ingredients.”
 

However, if this was the case why is Coca-Cola changing the way they make the caramel coloring used in their cola products sold in California? Also, I just read in the Vancouver Sun that Coca-Cola is going ahead now and changing the manufacturing process for the caramel throughout the entire USA.

I really think you are at risk if you have a soda every single day. This is because the FDA told Reuters that in order to reach the threshold for this carcinogenic food additive that was found in animals, you would have to drink 1000 sodas. Considering that there is ~365 days in a year and some people drink one soda a day, that means you could reach this threshold in just under 3 years!! 

If you really wanted to do something for your health though, just one thing that would make a large impact in your life, I would say to cut out your sodas, sweetened beverages etc., as obesity and diabetes is poses a higher risk overall compared to cancer from the caramel coloring. Eco-Savy is a website dedicated to helping people achieve a more eco-friendly, healthy lifestyle- check it out!You will also loose inches off your waist from that one simple change.

You are what you eat, so become educated on the food and beverage choices you make every day. Also, if you don’t agree with a policy or ingredient in a food product, never hesitate to contact that food company and learn more about it. Also, make them aware of what you as a consumer do and do not want in the food you buy. We all have the power to make a difference, everything counts.

 © new wave ideas -Sara Bonham