Hi Mike,

Brominated vegetable oil is used as an emulsifying agent.  As far as I know,
you can't use it in the EU or in Canada because it is believed to be a
carcinogen.  Man, I know now that I am sticking with Coke (not quite as much
caffeine, but it's got Phosphoric acid!)

Regards,

Kevin Gaugler

-----Original Message-----
From: Mcmaster, Michael [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 11:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Brominated Hydrocarbons and Mountain Dew (NTC-sort of)



This posting has no relevance to circuit boards or assemblies, but given the
amount of discussion on this forum on the drive to eliminate brominated
flame retardants in PWB materials and the fondness of some regulars for the
Dew, I think it's relevant.

The other day, I noticed one of my co-workers drinking a liquid that was
unnaturally bright red.  I queried him on exactly what this liquid was.  He
replied Mountain Dew Code Red.  This led to a discussion of what exactly was
Code Red.  A scan of the ingredients revealed the expected red dye but
surprisingly, it also contained brominated vegetable oil.  I immediately
asked why the makers of this product felt it necessary to add an apparent
flame retardant to their product.  My co-worker (incidentally a chemist who
really should no better but claims that he somehow manages to
compartmentalize all this stuff) had no idea.

I just thought this whole thing is very ironic.  Most of us work in an
industry that is spending millions of dollars trying to remove bromine from
one of the constituents while at the same time you have a "food" product to
which intentionally is added a brominated hydrocarbon. Does anybody know
what purpose the brominated vegetable oil serves? It also turns out the some
component is in regular Dew as well as diet red dew but not diet regular
Dew.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....
Mike McMaster
RF Product Engineer
Merix Corporation
503-992-4263



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