Have you ever watched an old movie or maybe an old television show where people are smoking cigarettes? Have you ever noticed how they treat cigarettes like they are beneficial to their health? Even going as far as to encourage pregnant women to continue to smoke? It is probably because science had yet to discover how harmful smoking truly was back then. So they treated it as if nothing could go wrong and smoking was normalized.

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Fast forward to today and we now know the harmful side effects of smoking cigarettes. But, you can only imagine what everyday things you use now, that we are unaware are harmful to us. What are we going to discover decades from now that we are going to wish we knew about before we made them an everyday part of our lives?

The FDA has recently put out a warning to people of a harmful chemical that is popular in every kitchen and home in Montana. It is called BVO, or Brominated Vegetable Oil. BVO can be found in just about any diet soft drink. Companies like Coca-Cola and Gatoraid removed BVO from products in 2014. according to Food Network.

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According to the FDA Press Release

The agency concluded that the intended use of BVO in food is no longer considered safe after the results of studies conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found the potential for adverse health effects in humans. BVO is a vegetable oil that is modified with bromine. It is authorized by the FDA for use in small amounts to keep the citrus flavoring from separating and floating to the top of some beverages. In 1970, the FDA determined BVO was no longer “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) and began overseeing its use under our food additive regulations.

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To find out if products in your home have BVO, simply look at the list of ingredients near the bottom of the label. If you purchased Great Value brand soda, you may want to check the label.

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Gallery Credit: Charlotte Barnett

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