Darryl
D’Monte reports from India on allegations that the two “cola kings” in
India – Coca-Cola and Pepsi – are selling drinks with traces of pesticide.
The allegations have raised a huge controversy, with parliament first banning
their sales in the House, and schools and other institutions following suit. The
controversy has deepened with some agencies giving the manufacturers a clean
chit, while the media NGO that raised the issue points to the lax controls in
India on water standards.
The
allegation by the Delhi-based media NGO, the Centre for Science &
Environment (CSE), that Coca-Cola and Pepsi are selling sub-standard products
has taken a curious turn, with official agencies issuing contradictory
statements regarding the contents. The central government has stated that these
beverage manufacturers sold bottled water within prescribed limits, but
constituted a joint parliamentary committee to probe pesticide contamination in
the colas, in the absence of separate standards for soft drinks. However, the
appointment of Mr Sharad Pawar, a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, to head
this committee does not inspire confidence, given his lack of probity in several
controversial affairs, not least his endorsement of the Enron power plant in his
home state.
Maharashtra’s
Food and Drug Administration, which has a better reputation than most others,
had first cleared both colas but then confirmed that samples taken in June did
contain traces of pesticide above India’s prescribed limits. It is vitally
important for all regulatory agencies to seize samples sold at the end of July
and earlier, since they are being replaced. The CSE alleges that the government
has analysed different batches of drinks from those that the CSE itself did and
wants the same batches of colas to be compared. It further alleges that the
manufacturers are now replacing stocks with more recent batches, which are
using better quality water.
The
Supreme Court, meanwhile, has ruled out Coca-Cola’s plea for the central
government to appoint an independent laboratory to test samples of its drink.
Unmindful of the irony in its request, the top lawyer Kapil Sibal reminded the
court of “the grave danger posed to the soft drink manufacturer” (!) in the
wake of the allegations posed by the CSE in early August.
This
is not going to be a controversy that dies down easily. On the one side are
ranged some of the most powerful corporate interests ever. Coca-Cola is simply
the world’s biggest brand, estimated at $70 billion. The Indian soft drinks
market, of which the two cola kings dominate with an 80% share, is put at a
staggering $1.74 billion a year. Indeed, Mr Sibal added insult to injury
(literally, in this case!) when he referred to the harm the controversy was
causing to his big client by
schools, colleges, government bodies and others refusing to accept crates of
coke.
The
Main Issues Should not be Side-Tracked
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Sunita
Narain of the CSE wishes to highlight the abysmal lack of standards in India for
food and drink |
However,
this controversy, like so many others, is in danger of becoming a case of
demonising the cola kings or environmentalists, depending on which side one
supports. This would be to miss the issue altogether, as Sunita Narain, the
feisty Director of the CSE, keeps pointing out. She has made it clear that she
does not wish primarily to take on the manufacturers for cheating the Indian
consumer. Her agenda, on the contrary, is to highlight the abysmal lack of
standards within the country for food (and drink). This is why earlier this
year, the CSE pointed out the grave shortcomings in the permitted
pesticide content in bottled water, almost all of which brands failed to meet
internationally accepted standards.
Ironically
enough, CSE was at the time accused of being in the pay of Coca-Cola and Pepsi
because the main targets – as in any such investigation it conducts – were
the biggest brands, which happened to belong to Indian companies like Ramesh
Chauhan’s Bisleri (he sold the indigenous cola Thums Up to Coca-Cola for some
$60 million several years ago).
The
media, typically, has stirred up a hornets’ nest and tended to obscure the
main issue, seeking to put drinks manufacturers rather than the central and
state governments and its official regulatory agencies like the Pollution
Control Boards and food and drug inspectorates on the mat. It is necessary to
reiterate what the CSE sought to demonstrate. It now has its own sophisticated
laboratory to ensure that it is not only in full possession of the samples that
it has tested but, equally importantly, is fully abreast of the analytical
techniques. It checked all drinks for 16 organochlorine pesticides, 12
organophosphorous and four synthetic pyrethroids. All contained pesticide
residues, compared to the European Economic Community’s (EEC) standards. DDT
was 15 times higher, lindane 21 times, chlorphyrifos 42 times and malathion a
staggering 87 times. Coca-Cola had pesticide 45 times more than the prescribed
EEC limits and Mirinda Lemon 70 times.
The
harsh truth is that when the CSE tested samples of Coca-Cola and Pepsi from the
US, it found that the latter were absolutely free of such contamination. The
answer, obviously, lies in the water used, since there are strict rules
regarding the use of such pesticides in the US and Europe where some, like DDT,
are banned altogether. The Indian subsidiaries may well argue that they are
simply meeting domestic standards, but this can hardly hold water (pardon the
pun), if they claim to be selling a standard product worldwide.
Proper
Regulations Lacking
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Allegations
of large concentrations of pesticides present in Coca-Cola and Pepsi are
currently under investigation |
The
real story is that the standards for soft drinks are even more lax than they are
for bottled water, which were imposed five years ago. While the Fruit Product
Order, issued by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, regulates the
amount of fruit pulp and sugar or glucose in such drinks, there is no regulation
on the basic raw material, water, other than to specify that “potable” water
must be used.
Further, while the Prevention of Food Adulteration, under another agency, the
Ministry of Health, regulates the amount of pesticides in food, beverages are
excluded altogether. There is a clause regarding standards for non-alcoholic
drinks, but it says nothing about pesticides. There are several clauses that
prescribe voluntary compliance. The true culprits, therefore, are the various
official agencies – the very sources which Coca-Cola and Pepsi are running to
in order to obtain respite from the blistering allegations which, reportedly,
have reduced their sales in some cities by as much as 60% for the time being.
It
is 41 years since Rachel Carson first drew the attention of the American public,
and subsequently of much of the world, to the dangers of indiscriminate use of
pesticides in agriculture, which eventually find their way into the wildlife and
human food chain. There have been heated controversies over whether or not to
ban DDT and malathion in this country: while it kills off mosquitoes and other
pests which can cause malaria and dreaded epidemics, as well as rodents which
consume food grain stocks, it causes havoc in the human system. It is nothing
less than a toss-up between short-term gains and long-term hazards. This is why
the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies found that Indians have
the highest traces of DDT in their bodies. One has only to recall a WHO poster
several years ago which simply showed a bare female breast with the caption:
“Milk in these containers is unfit for human consumption.”
The
real need, clearly, is for much stricter standards in every sphere of life that
has an impact on health and well being. Only recently, for instance, the
accident in the Kalpakkam nuclear plant in south India has once again raised
fears regarding the safety of workers in such installations – not to mention
the nearby residents if there is a bigger catastrophe. Typically, workers are
not granted access to their medical records in nuclear and chemical plants under
the specious plea that these belong to the company and are “confidential”.
The lack of safety standards has been even more shockingly absent in procedures
for spraying pesticides, with illiterate farmers mixing toxic chemicals with
their bare hands and inhaling fumes as the chemicals are sprayed.
The
least the parliamentary committee must do is to highlight the incredibly
hazardous shortcomings in standards in the food and drink industry, which
obviously have a direct impact on human health. The cola kings are raising a red
herring by arguing that prescribing EEC standards will adversely impact Indian agriculture.
For multinationals accused of “colonising” the world, this is a laughable
argument.
In
the wake of the CSE’s allegations, the media has correctly highlighted how all
vegetables also have pesticide residues, while foodstuffs are adulterated with
every conceivable colouring agent and other chemicals, many of which are
carcinogenic. India already has the unsavoury reputation of being a country with
the worst AIDS pandemic; it will quickly catapult itself into a similar status
for cancer, at this rate.
Darryl D’Monte is the founder President of the International Federation of
Environmental Journalists and is serving a second term till 2003. He is also the
Chairperson of the Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI) and a
syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has published two books:
“Temples or Tombs? Industry versus Environment: Three Controversies”, Center
for Science & Environment, New Delhi, 1985 and “Ripping the Fabric: The
Decline of Mumbai and its Mills”, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002. He
was previously the Resident Editor of the “Indian Express” (1979-1981) and
of the “Times of India” (1988-1994) in Mumbai. Your emails will be
forwarded to him by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net.
