Carmel coloring in soda poses a cancer risk.

This is just one more reason to avoid soft drinks.

As if high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, and preservatives don’t make soft drinks unattractive and unhealthy enough now the danger of cancer must be considered.

While toxicology studies show that 4-MI can cause cancer in lab animals, it’s not clear whether it’s a human carcinogen — or whether the amounts detected in sodas pose any kind of a threat.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in February 2011 petitioned the FDA to ban this kind of caramel coloring. It also wanted the cosmetic additive renamed “chemically modified caramel coloring” or “ammonia-sulfite process caramel coloring.”