Coke plant gets fizz with favourable preliminary report

Thursday, 14 August 2003, 19:30 IST
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kerala has got a reprieve, with a preliminary report saying lead and cadmium levels in soft drinks produced there were well within permissible limits. State Health Minister P. Sankaran told the Kerala assembly Wednesday that the soft drink samples were tested at a laboratory in Kochi and the preliminary report indicated negligible presence of lead and cadmium. "The government will take action only after a final report is received and we are also waiting for a report from the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore," said Sankaran. BBC Radio had filed a report earlier this month that sludge produced at a coke factory in Plachimada in Palakkad district -- which is given to locals free of cost -- contained toxic chemicals like lead and cadmium and was also polluting water supplies and the land. Soft drink samples from four districts in Kerala were then sent for testing, including those from the Palakkad bottling plant. Coke, along with its rival soft drink major Pepsi, has been in the eye of a storm in India after a Delhi-based green NGO said products of the two companies contained toxic pesticide residues. The Kerala State Pollution Control Board has asked the Coca-Cola plant to stop distributing the sludge. On Tuesday, Janata Dal (S) activists staged a protest in front of the factory, demanding its immediate closure. The Coca-Cola Virudha Samithi, a grouping of the youth wings of left parties, has decided to observe a 12-hour protest in Chittoor, near Palakkad town, on August 21.
Source: IANS
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