from PreventDisease Website
Besides being an effective poison to the human metabolism, it seems Pepsi and Coca-Cola have another popular function in other parts of the world.
One of India’s leading voluntary agencies, the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) said that soft drinks manufactured in India, including those carrying the Pepsi and Coca-Cola brand names, contain unacceptably high levels of pesticide residues and consequently many farmers have used the beverages to combat pests because of low costs compared to conventional pesticide brands.
It's cheaper and easier to buy Coke in some third world countries than it is to access clean water.
Coke uses "public relations propaganda"
to convince consumers and entire nations that it is an
"environmental company" when really it is linked to pollution, water
shortages, and disease.
The level of chlorpyrifos was 42 times higher than EEC norms, their study showed.
Malathion residues were 87 times
higher and
lindane - banned in the United
States - 21 times higher, CSE scientists said.
Samples from brand leaders Coca-Cola and
Pepsi had almost similar concentrations of pesticide residues in the
CSE findings. Contaminants in Pepsi samples were 37 times higher
than the EEC limit while its rival Coca-Cola exceeded the norms by
45 times, the same findings showed.
Sanjeev Gupta, president of
Coca-Cola India, called the revelations made by CSE "unfair" and
said his company was being subjected to a "trial by media".
The practice of using soft drinks in
lieu of pesticides, which are 10 times more expensive, gained so
much popularity that sales of the drinks increased drastically in
remote villages.
By comparison, if they mix a bottle of Pepsi or Coke with water and spray it on the crop it costs 55-60 rupees less per acre.
Old Practice
He says the drinks are effectively sugar
syrups and when they are poured on crops they attract ants which in
turn feed on the larva of insects. Mr Sharma says using sugar syrup for pest control is not a new practice.
Fellow scientist, Sanket Thakur, has a different explanation:
Coke in the United States contains
high fructose corn syrup which may
even prove to be a more effective pesticide since it is a
concentrated cocktail of the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Anupam Verma, Pepsi sales manager at the time in Chhattisgarh, said sales figures in rural areas of the state increased by 20%.
High pesticide residues were reported in
groundwater around Delhi at the time when the government's Central
Ground Water Board (CGWB) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
carried out a study which also reported excessive salinity, nitrate
and fluoride content besides traces of lead, cadmium and chromium.
Although more than 95% of all soft drink brands in the United States are made with municipal water supplies containing all of the same toxins and pharmaceuticals in our drinking water including,
CSE found that the regulations for the powerful and massive soft drinks industry are much weaker, indeed non-existent, as compared to those for the bottled water industry.
The norms that exist to regulate the
quality of cold drinks are inadequate, leaving this "food" sector
virtually unregulated.
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