Does banning colas make any sense?

Though cola firms now appear willing to accept pesticide standards, diehards still cite high residues in other foods to argue against any action.

P K SREEMATHI TEACHER,
Minister of Health, Government of Kerala

Coke should have been banned three years ago when we found lead and cadmium deposits in effluents from its bottling plant

The ban on soft drinks is perfectly fair. The issue concerns people's health. People here have been worried about the content of soft drinks and their impact on health. They should have been banned not now but three years ago when the State Pollution Control Board found lead and cadmium deposits (which can cause cancer) in effluents from Coke's bottling plant in Plachimada village in the Palakkad district.

We would have taken the decision anyway, with or without any report on pesticide content by the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE). We have enough evidence on the harmful content of soft drinks. We've always been fighting the cola companies in the state and have been demanding the closure of their bottling plants. Our party was associated with the struggle for the closure of the [Coke's] plant after it was found not only depleting ground water resources of the parched village, but also polluting it. Now that the LDF is in power, the ban is but natural.

A drastic step like this was planned the moment we got a letter from the Union health ministry recently asking us to pick up samples of soft drinks and test them. We have done the tests and results are expected any day.

Why should anyone oppose the ban? Soft drinks don't have any nutritive value and people don't miss on anything valuable because of the ban. What's more important is that it prevents people from ruining their health.

Hence, the ban has nothing to do with the CSE reports. Besides, one must remember that we had a campaign against the cola companies and it had been a discourse at a national level whether these companies should be allowed to operate in India. The decision of the LDF government has come almost immediately after it has come to power. We are just two months old and the ban on Coke is a natural consequence of our struggle.

Why should anyone drink Coke? You can always drink water to quench your thirst. Or, if you are in Kerala, you can have elaneer vellam (coconut water). Or, if nothing else, have boiled water which is the safest. Why have chemically-treated water that will ruin your health? There need not be any justification for the ban of Coke and Pepsi other than the fact that it is a good thing to ban them. We feel extremely good about it. For it will be one thing less to worry about in the health sector. Whether the ban would be revoked if circumstances change and there is assurance of safety standards being adhered to by Coke is a question that can be considered only when such a circumstance arises. We would not ban it if we were eager to revoke the ban.

But, in my view, even with all the safety standards in place, chemically-treated drinks are not a safe bet for health. And cola is not the only thing that should be banned. There are many other things which ought to be banned. It is a long list.

SALIL SINGHAL,
Chairman & Managing Director, PI Industries Ltd

Vitamin B12 is a potent poison at high doses. Potatoes contain around 75,000 ppb of chaconine, a potent lipophilic neurotoxin

Ban cola drinks! Why? Is it because they do not meet national standards? But the NGO and the cola companies agree that the standards are yet to be notified. It is because colas do not provide nutrition? Well, nor do water, alcohol, tobacco or movies. Or is it because it is politically expedient to do so, because of the alleged tiny contaminants of pesticides in the colas? Such allegations are baseless, unscientific and unsubstantiated.

It is sad to see an NGO with a good track record succumb to the temptation of free publicity and mislead the public on such a sensitive issue. A few crore rupees could not buy the media space and air time this story got, for free!

If governments are to regulate or ban, they must do so on the back of sound science, not on the mere saying of an NGO. The NGO in its press release of August 3 said "we know that pesticides are tiny toxins" and then contradicted itself in a TV debate, when it made a plea for "safe levels".

Science tells us that it is the dose which makes the poison. The mere finding of pesticides in cola do not make them unsafe to drink. At least similar residues would be found in the water we drink, and all the food we eat. Science tells us that at these extremely low doses there is absolutely no risk to health, the very basis of the regulation.

But because an NGO makes a sensational revelation, the media turn this canard into a man bites dog story. It would appear that this 21st century, the so-called knowledge age, belongs to the voodoo man "" believe it because he says so! We have repeatedly asked the NGO "" where are the scientific publications which state that the ppb (parts per billion) levels of pesticides they have detected in colas are dangerous? At least three generations have lived with colas, where are the thousands of debilitated sick from this consumption? The NGO's reply is awaited.

The pesticides industry, worldwide, is regulated based on stringent principles of toxicology (science dealing with nature and effects of poisons) covering their effects before and after use. The regulation looks for harmful effects in microscopic doses of ppb. No scientific report shows poison effects at these low levels. Nature and industry both produce poisons. Vitamin B12 is a potent poison at high doses. Potatoes contain around 75,000 ppb of chaconine, a potent lipophilic neurotoxin. "Of all dietary pesticides that humans eat, 99.99 per cent are natural," says Bruce Ames, the world's most respected cancer researcher. "Studies have not demonstrated that ambient level exposures to environmental chemicals result in adverse health effects" (American Council of Science & Health). Whom should we believe, Science or the NGO?

The knee jerk idea to ban colas on such flimsy grounds will make India the laughing stock of the world, both for its scant respect for constitutional law, and for making science a joke.