There is a big debate going on around India about the pestisides in Colas. Now even the international news organizations are putting more focus on this issue. As you know, CSE started it all when their results found pestisides in 11 brands of Coke and Pepsi. After testing 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands of Coca Cola and PepsiCo collected from 25 manufacturing units across 12 states, claimed that all the bottles examined had a ‘cocktail of 3-5 different pesticides’ which was 24 times above the standards finalised by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Even the supreme court ordered the two companies to turn in their ingredients. Coke is claiming that the pesticides are well within EU standards.
The Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry say that decisions to ban Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products from schools, colleges and hospitals run by the government are likely to hurt the country’s broader economy, slowing the investment climate.
In the United States, few months ago Bill Clinton placed a proposal in front of the cola gaints Coke and Pepsi to take out all the Cola stands out of schools, stating these drinks are causing obesity in children. These companies even withdrew and milk products were made available instead of these drinks. The Cola advertisements aiming at children shows it is fun to consume these drinks makes children addictives to these kind of drinks.
Government should come up with a strategic plan to dealt with this issue. At Desi Videos we think the government should take measurments to make these drinks NOT available atleast around the schools. This will adversly affect the young generation for sure with problems such as obesity, diabetics etc. This is already the case in the United States.
Please feel free to use comments section to convey and discuss your stands.
Sources: Reuters, business-standard.com, hindu.com, NDTV
