The Center for Science and Environment (CSE) reported recently that their laboratory tests show high levels of pesticides in Coke and Pepsi drinks.
But the soft drink manufactures claim that the “drinks are completely safe” and “The soft drinks manufactured in India comply with stringent international norms and all applicable national regulations."
The CSE director, Sunita Narain declares, “This is a grave public health scandal”.
The Left Front Government in Kerala, (the most literate state in India), without running their own tests or without waiting for test results from Central Government Laboratories, declare a ban on production and sales of Coke and Pepsi in the state, just to advertise their anti-multinational and anti-American credentials. By the way, it is an illegal act to ban production based on such unproven violations.
However, the central Health Minister, Dr. Ramadoss says that on-going tests on these drinks from different parts of the country show that the levels of pesticides in these drinks are not at harmful levels.
Ironically, the left Government of Bengali Babus in West Bengal do not follow the Kerala’s lead. In fact the LF chairman Biman Bose concurs with Mr. Ramadoss and says, ‘‘Whatever is found in normal drinking water is there in Coke and Pepsi. No more, no less.’’
Who is telling the truth?
Sunita Narain or Dr. Ramadoss? Kerala Left or West Bengal Left?
Whom do you believe? What should a consumer do?
To get answers to these questions, I did a small investigation. I went to the CSE website (www.cseindia.org) and read their press releases on this topic. (The CSE looks like a credible organization with a executive board consisting of mostly retired professionals. They appear to be pro-environment activists.)
The first stated result of the CSE report on Coke and Pepsi is that these contain unsafe levels of Heptaclor, a pesticide. According to Govt.’s response, this pesticide is banned in India in 1996. Heptaclor is not produced or distrubuted in the country for the past 10 years. So how does it get into these soft drinks? Are the Pepsi and Coke companies illegally producing it and mixing in the drinks? Not so. CSE does not accuse the soft drink companies of such illegal acts. In its point-to-point rebuttal to the Govt, response, CSE says that the residues of the Heptaclor remain in our soil and environment for 20 years and passed into water and food supplies.
By implication, the source of the “unsafe” levels of Heptaclor found in soft drinks is ground water.
I wrote to the CSE and received a prompt response from Shachi Chaturvedi of CSE Media Resource Centre, confirming my conclusions.
Now let us look at these facts:
Coke and Pepsi produce and distribute 500 million (50 crore) bottles of the soft drinks in India per year. (Contract this with 2.5 billions (250 crores) of soft drinks consumed by the US consumers per week). A simple arithmetic calculation shows that an Indian consumes ½ bottle of Coke / Pepsi on average per year. On the other hand, every Indian consumes several bottles of water with the same “unsafe” levels of Heptaclor per day.
If you are rational, you can see that the health effects of soft drink consumption are so minor that it is not worth this kind of public argument. Drinking water is causing much more damage to the health of citizens.
Clearly the CSE is misguided in raising media frenzy about this issue and the Kerala Left Govt. is dead wrong in banning Coke and Pepsi.
Govinda RB.
September 17, 2006
posted by Govinda Bhisetti @ 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
Finally, Kerala High Court ruled that the ban on sale and production of Coca-Cola and Pepsi was "harsh, unjust and arbitrary".
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