Pesticides found in Indian soft drinks.

• Author: Chafe, Zoe
• Position: Environmental

Many Indian sodas contain detectable amounts of pesticide residues, according to a report released in August by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Following the organization's discovery in February of pesticide residues in New Delhi's bottled water, which led the government to issue a national "notification" on pesticide residues in water, CSE tested samples of the 12 top soda brands marketed in India by PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

Using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency protocols, CSE's independent Pollution Monitoring Laboratory found total pesticide concentrations up to 70 times the amount permitted by European Economic Commission standards for water used for food products. Four commonly used insecticides were detected in at least 81 percent of the samples tested: DDT, malathion, lindane, and chloropyrifos. These chemicals have been linked to a variety of health complications, including nervous and immune system dysfunction and chromosomal mutation. On average, CSE found that PepsiCo brands contained 36 times the pesticides permitted under EEC standards, and Coca-Cola brands contained 30 times the amount allowed. (CSE also tested samples of similar soft drinks sold in the United States and found no pesticide residues. Soft drinks are usually bottled in the country where they are sold, suggesting the starkly worse quality of ground-water in India.)

Days after the CSE report was released, the Maharashtra state...