Coca-Cola Distributes Free Cadmium-Contaminated Sewage Sludge To Farmers

[hatrack]

PLACHIMADA - In the end it was the "generosity" of Coca-Cola in distributing cadmium-laden waste sludge as "free fertilizer" to the tribes who live near the beverage giant's bottling plant in this remote Kerala village that proved to be its undoing. On Friday, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) ordered the plant shut down, much to the jubilation of tribal leaders and green activists who had focused more on the "water mining" activities of the plant rather than its production of toxic cadmium sludge.

"One way or another, this plant should be shut down and the management made to pay compensation for destroying our paddy fields, fooling us with fake fertilizer and drying out our wells," said Paru Amma, a tribal woman who lives in this once lush, water-abundant area. Chairman of the KSPCB, G Rajmohan, said the closure was ordered because the plant "does not have adequate waste treatment systems and toxic products from the plant were affecting drinking water in nearby villages" and that the plant "has also not provided drinking water in a satisfying manner to local residents". Apparently, the generosity of the Coca-Cola plant was limited to distributing sludge and waste water free, and did not extend to providing drinking water to people seriously affected by its operations. In a statement Saturday, Coca-Cola said it was "reviewing the order passed by the chairman of the Pollution Control Board", and that "going forward, we are in the process of evaluating future steps, including a judicial review".

The KSPCB closure order was only the latest episode in a see-saw battle between Coca-Cola and the impoverished but plucky local residents ever since the Atlanta-based company began operating its US$25 million bottling plant in this village, located in the state's fertile Palakkad district, in 2001. Along the way, pollution control authorities, political parties, the judiciary and global environmental groups, starting with Greenpeace International, became involved in the dispute and Plachimada grew into a global symbol of resistance by local people to powerful transnational corporations trying to snatch away their water rights.

Although the local people had begun protesting against their wells running dry months after the plant began operations, serious trouble for the company began a little more than two years ago when a local doctor declared the water still available in the wells unfit for consumption. In July 2003, a BBC Radio-4 report, after carrying out tests at the University of Exeter in Britain, pronounced the sludge as dangerously laden with heavy metals, especially cadmium and lead, and already contaminating the food chain. The sludge also had no value as fertilizer, the report said. Cadmium is a known carcinogen which causes kidney damage while exposure to lead can lead to mental derangement and death, and is particularly dangerous for children causing them severe anemia and mental retardation. The BBC report quoted Professor John Henry, a leading toxicity expert and consultant at St Mary's Hospital in London, warn of "devastating consequences for those living near areas where this waste has been dumped and for the thousands who depend on crops produced in these fields".

EDIT

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GH23Df02.html

Gosh, aren't they generous, caring people at Coca-Cola?

"I'd like to teach the world to sing,
In perfect harmony!
I'd like to get some sewage sludge
And hand it out for freeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

:mad:

[skids]

1. Recommended.

Caught red handed. I love it.

(Plus this forum needs to hit the greatest page from time to time.)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. at least they can keep their soda machines in grade schools

getting an early start on future diet coke drinkers.

[Canuckistanian]

3. WTF was Coca-Cola doing with Cadmium?

One of the most toxic substaces known to man and they're using it to make a potable substance?

Usually, cadmium is a radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors.

[dcfirefighter]

4. Dammit, Coke just goes better with bourbon

I guess I'll have to learn to live with pepsi or generic cola.

[struggle4progress]

5. Toxic sludge as fertilizer has been a favorite trick of many industries ..

.. in the last twenty years. Fly ash is a common additive. I bought my last bag of fertilizer about a decade ago after finding pieces of what was obviously smelter clinker. The nuclear industry was excited about this, too, in the early 1990's: they were going to turn their wastes into "raffinates" and add them as "enhancers" to fertilizer.