The Dangers of the Additive Brominated Vegetable Oil in Drinks Do You Know Exactly What is in Your Favorite Beverage? Melanie Neer,

I can almost thank my lucky stars, that I've never been much of a soda drinker, in fact, I haven't consumed any in years. First, I find them way too sickeningly sweet, for the regular types. I also never cared for the diet type as I just didn't care for the taste, and in consideration that there are now warnings about the health hazards of the added artificial sweetener, aspartame, I would think anyone would steer clear of diet drinks in general.
Now I've come across information, of yet another dangerous additive that is found in the citrus flavored type sodas or drinks, such as Mountain Dew, Fresca, Fanta, and is even found in the power drinks, such as the familiar Gatorade, and that is the additive of Brominated Vegetable Oil or BVO. The real kicker in all this is that BVO has actually been banned in over 100 countries, and even the FDA considers this additive as unsafe, yet, so far, no measures have been taken to ban it's usage here in this country.

Brominated Vegetable Oil, has as it's composition the element of bromine in which, believe it or not, the vapors of bromine are considered both corrosive and toxic...in other words can outrightly be considered a poisonous chemical. The chemical bromine is used for a number of products, from one of the chemicals that treat surfaces for light-sensitive photographic printing papers, as an additive for gasoline, to agricultural fumigants. At one time, bromine was even used to make sedatives, but then the FDA banned its usage around 1975, as it was found to trigger a whole host of psychiatric disorders.