CSE welcomes
independent testing.
Independence and
credibility matter.
Accreditation is not an issue
New
Delhi, August 8, 2003: The Centre for
Science and Environment (CSE) welcomes
the Union governments initiative to
have soft drinks sold by the two cola
giants independently tested for pesticide
residues. CSE advises the government to
broaden the ambit: testing must be done
also for residues of cadmium, arsenic and
lead, since the standard for these
hazardous substances is much higher
50 times than what is
legislated for the bottled water
industry. At the same time, CSE would
like to caution the government: these
tests should be done extremely carefully
to ensure complete independence and
credibility of results. After all, these
are powerful companies.
We
caution from experience. CSE is witness
to industry pressurising government to
whitewash the truth. When controversy
erupted over the use of pesticide
endosulfan in Padre village in Kerala in
2001, CSE tested samples and confirmed
the presence of very high levels of the
pesticide in the food and water of the
village. As a result, the Kerala
Plantation Corporation commissioned an
independent report from an accredited
agency -- which gave a clean chit to
industry and said that there was no
endosulfan present in the village! It
took 10 months of consistent efforts by
activists to reopen the case and finally,
it was the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC), which asked the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to
revisit the village.
The ICMR
study that followed was an eye-opener. It
not only confirmed endosulfan levels CSE
had reported, but also pointed to the
high levels of reproductive, congenital
and neurological diseases the village was
suffering from, because of this deadly
pesticide.
Therefore,
given the very high stakes involved, it
is imperative that the testing is
carefully done so that the results are
completely credible.
CSE
completely dissociates itself from the
kind of action being resorted to by
certain groups across the country who are
smashing and burning bottles of Coke and
Pepsi and even calling for a ban. We have
consistently maintained: it is not
Coke per se and Pepsi per se that are
to blame. It is the lack of government
regulations. Therefore, instead of
breaking cold drink bottles, it is
important for the same activists to
instead point accusing fingers at the
weak regulatory framework for the soft
drink industry. While the bottled water
industry has now been brought under
better regulation, no equivalently
stringent norms exist for this extremely
powerful and important food industry. It
is the lack of norms and the weakness of
the regulatory framework that need to be
repaired.
We do
not accept Cokes contention that it
meets global standards. Firstly, it is
not true -- as CSEs earlier report
on bottled water clearly showed -- Coke
and Pepsi were also indicted in the
bottled water case, when their products
Aquafina and Kinley were found to contain
pesticide residues higher than EEC norms.
It was very clear that the companies were
meeting the extremely weak norms of the
Government of India, and not global
norms. Similarly, in this case, it is
apparent that these companies are meeting
only the virtually non-existent
government norms, and not global ones, as
the lack of data of their product
presented by companies clearly reveals.
Finally,
a larger issue. Coke and Pepsi are not
extra-constitutional authorities in this
country. They cannot determine the
regulations they will follow. The people
of India must demand adequate
regulations, which guarantees their
safety. CSE, therefore, hope that this
debate will now move the government to
enact tight regulations for this industry
however powerful -- as fast as
possible.
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