However, children are not only at risk of harm from additives in food and drinks, but, alarmingly, also from those in medicines, given when a child's immune system is already low.
The list of ingredients for a low-dose steroid, given to children as well as to adults, does not make for comfortable reading. It includes E110, Sunset Yellow, E124, ponceau 4R, E132, indigo carmine, as well as E211, sodium benzoate.
How can these additives, in particular those as unnecessary as proven toxic colours, be ethically allowed in a medicine used for sick children? There is even an admission of danger in the warning on the leaflet enclosed with the medicine, saying that 'ponceau 4R and Sunset Yellow are azo dyes which can cause allergic reactions, including asthma'.
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