The plaintiffs said in a statement that in their independent tests, an East Coast beverage -- Polar Beverages' Diet Orange Dry -- contained 9.1 parts per billion (ppb) benzene, almost twice as high as the EPA's 5 ppb cap set for drinking water. They said another beverage -- BellyWashers 2/3 Less Sugar, manufactured by In Zone Brands, whose products are found nationwide -- contained 69 ppb.

Even if the benzene level in some soft drinks is above the mark for water, that does not mean the drinks are dangerous, says toxicology professor Martyn Smith of UC Berkeley. "We take in 100 to 200 micrograms per day of benzene from air pollution -- and one soft drink [with 5 to 10 ppb] would add 2 or 3 micrograms to this," Smith says.

Chemists say that the testing methods used to determine the benzene level in soft drinks add to the confusion, because they can overestimate amounts of the chemical. The FDA, for example, found in earlier testing (with boiled samples) that a handful of drinks had benzene concentrations ranging from 20 ppb to 95 ppb. But baked pot roast scored 39 ppb, and raw bananas came in at 64 ppb.