No Coke….Pepsi

“No Coke…Pepsi” is not only a quick one liner from a John Belushi classic Saturday Night Live sketch, it is the current position of the Karnataka Health Minister. No Coke, no Pepsi, no carbonated drinks in the school system. Kerala took the ban on sodas one step further. It banned the sweet, bubbly elixirs from the entire state! Gujarat banned Coke and Pepsi from its school system. Rajasthan did likewise. The Punjab state removed the soft drinks from its in-house dining menu. In all, seven states have placed some type of ban on the sale of Coke and Pepsi.

What’s up? Are we seeing a nascent consumer movement to improve the general health of school child and the general population?

The furor over soft drinks started a few days ago. The Center for Science and Environment reported that after testing 57 samples of soft drinks made by the two companies, results showed that they contained residues of pesticides. The agricultural pesticide Malathion was found in a concentration of 0.14 while the permissible limit is 0.1 ppb. Residues of DTT, lindame, and chlorpyrfos were also found. Not sure what lindame and chorpyrfos are, but when one sees a list starting with DDT as containments in food product, concern is raised.

We are grateful that swift action was taken to guard the food supply. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo account for nearly 80 percent of India's $2 billion-plus soft drink market. That fact leads one to be bit suspicious about the proceedings, however.

This is not the first time Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have faced such charges in India. Three years ago, the Center for Science and Environment made similar allegations. A swipe at an outside multi-national corporation (MNC) is not bad politics.

There is some good public health science at play as well as residues of hypocrisy. General sanitation in India is appalling. Many Bangaloreans draw their drinking water from untreated, untested borewells. In our own N.R. Colony, people work the long-handled arms of well pumps, filling their plastic water jugs with water of questionable quality. The thought of drinking tap water in our well-heeled apartment building never crosses our thoughts. We are diligent never to let a wet glass or dish pass to the dining room table.

We are familiar with New York Times-style reporting, with the details of the test results printed with charts explaining the implications to the layman. When a Karnataka government official was asked to name the lab that conducted the test, he responded, “This is not the right time to reveal that information." Hmmmmm…..

Adding to the story is the urban legend, or rather rural legend, from April 2005, that farmers in India sprayed Coke and Pepsi on crops and claimed it was an effective pesticide. The Coke website is silent regarding their product either being a pesticide or containing a pesticide. For us, we will give up our occasional Diet Coke or Pepsi and fall back to an old standard. Gin & tonic, anyone?