Last week, the Food and Drug Administration red dye no. 3 prohibited-a coloring found hidden in everything from baked goods to pills. Regulators banned it on the grounds that several studies showed a worrying tendency for the dye to cause thyroid cancer in animals. Since 1990, it is prohibited use in cosmeticsbut it persisted somehow in food and medicine.
Relieved by the ban? Don’t be. Red dye #3 should be replaced with. . . Red dye n°40which in Europe is accompanied by a not very encouraging situation warning label: “May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
It’s hard to shake the feeling that synthetic dyes are just the tip of a very large and very worrying iceberg.
