INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - AUGUST 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

IN PESTICIDES ROW, COLAS GET A CLEAN CHIT

IN A MAJOR reprieve for cola companies, the government on Tuesday said an expert committee set up by it found “no conclusive evidence of the presence of pesticides in the concentration reported (by CSE)”. The statement puts a question mark on the partial or complete bans imposed on colas by different state governments.

Grilled over the pesticide controversy in the Lok Sabha, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said an expert committee set up to review CSE's report observed that it does not provide details required for confirmatory interpretation of quantum results. It also found the residue data reported, based on gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy confirmation methodology, inconclusive and said the prevalence of different isomers of pesticide HCH reported by CSE is in contradiction of their biological nature.

“The government bats for cola companies, discounts public health” is how CSE fired back, adding the health minister has rushed to give cola companies a clean chit. The cola majors were guarded in their public statements. Maintaining that their products are safe, Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India issued identical statements, saying they are working with the government on developing standards for soft drinks.

“The controversy is over. With the health minister's statement, we stand vindicated,” said an executive from one of the cola companies. The cola companies have been maintaining that there are no standardised testing protocols to measure pesticide residues at the level of parts per billion, which would yield replicable tests and verifiable results. This is the only caveat to their declared readiness to accept pesticide residue standards for the finished product, compared to ingredients such as water, sugar, flavourings, etc.

The absence of standardised testing protocols renders suspect not just findings that put pesticide levels in colas above the norm, but also findings such as those quoted by the health minister, which put the pesticide residues within the normative levels. The only thing clear is that the norms laid down are so stringent as to make minor deviations harmless for those who drink cola.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Mr Ramadoss said that the expert committee observed that the presence of heptachlor — which is banned since 1996 — in colas as reported by CSE is ‘unlikely', as is the presence of malathion in the concentration reported. The health ministry has sought further details from CSE, he added.

The health ministry has got 213 samples of colas and packaged drinking water lifted from 14 states for testing in state and central labs. Tests conducted in Gujarat found no pesticide present in carbonated drinks while samples tested in Mysore found pesticide levels below statutory limits, said the minister.

The study to assess pesticide residue levels in sugar would be ready by January 2007, which would enable the government to prescribe composite standards for carbonated water after following the due notification process, the minister said.
Charging the expert committee with repeating allegations made by the UK-based Central Science Laboratory (CSL), which supported Coca-Cola India 's safety claims, CSE director Sunita Narain said, “It is very unfortunate that the minister has decided to toe the company line and even use its language verbatim. This clearly shows his allegiance to their cause.”

The NGO pointed out that heptachlor takes 20 years to decompose, and has been found in food samples in tests conducted by the government itself, as reported by the All India Coordinated Project on Pesticide Residues in its 2001 report.

The NGO said that the health ministry has refused to set a deadline on notifying standards and is prevaricating by setting up one committee after another. Ms Narain said the NGO has not received any request for clarification on its report from the health ministry so far.