Date:08/08/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/08/08/stories/2003080808391200.htm

National

CSE stands by its report

By Our Staff Reporter

Soft drink bottles being removed from the Parliament House on Thursday. — PTI

NEW DELHI AUG. 7. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) today stood by its report claiming that the cola giants, Pepsi and Coke, were trying to create confusion and take the consumers for a ride by issuing test results of their products to counter the CSE report. The CSE report released earlier this week said it had found high amounts of residues of toxic pesticides and other contaminants in soft drinks. In a press release today, the CSE dismissed the data released by the two cola multinationals and alleged that the reports were being released to hoodwink the public.

Asserting that the data provided by the multinationals was not comparable to the results of the tests conducted by them, the CSE said they themselves were ``seriously contemplating all options — including legal action''. According to CSE officials, two sets of data have been released. One is by Pepsi on the Vimta laboratory report for 24 residues of toxic pesticides tested in six cities and in Delhi. Coke, too, has released data on tests done by the Netherlands-based Nutrition and Food Research Laboratory (TNO) for 12 different sites the country.

``An analysis of these reports shows that Coke's data pertains to `Kinley', one of its products, which is a bottled water product, while Pepsi's report was related to its Aquafina plants and the tests have actually been carried out for raw water and treated water,'' the CSE release said.