http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1020
Indian Pop Has POPs (and other pesticides) www.cseindia.org
Murray 8.15.3 rmforall
"Malathion detected in Coca-Cola was 137 times greater than EEC drinking water
standards."

http://www.panna.org

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P A N U P S Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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Indian Pop Has POPs (and other pesticides) August 15, 2003

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in India reported on August 5,
2003 that pesticides had been found in twelve brands of Indian soft drinks.

CSE's Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML) analyzed samples of bottled
soft drinks for 16 organochlorine pesticides, 12 organophosphorus pesticides
and 4 synthetic pyrethroides, all of which are used extensively in India.
The soft drink brands tested were Blue Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Diet Pepsi, Fanta,
Limca, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Lemon, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Sprite,
Thums Up, and 7-Up.

Lindane, an organochlorine pesticide applied to seeds before planting and
used pharmaceutically to treat lice and scabies, was found in every brand of
soft drink tested. Lindane persists in the environment, contaminates surface
and ground water and accumulates in fat tissues. Highest concentrations of
lindane found by PML were 0.0042 mg/L, or 42 times the European Economic
Commission (EEC) standard for drinking water. For all twelve brands,
lindane concentrations averaged 21 times the EEC standard.

The organophosphate pesticide DDT and its metabolites (DDD and DDE) were
detected in 81% of the samples tested.
Average DDT and metabolite concentrations were 15 times European limits.

Chlorophyrifos, a neurotoxin and a special risk to pregnant women,
was also found in all of the samples, with average concentrations
42 times the EEC standard.

Malathion was detected in 97% of the samples, highest in a Mirinda Lemon
sample at 196 times the European standard. Malathion detected in Coca-Cola
was 137 times greater than EEC drinking water standards.

In February 2003, the CSE tested bottled drinking water and also found
pesticides in 17 different Indian labels. The same laboratory detected lindane,
DDT, malathion, and chlorpyrifos in all of the bottled water samples tested,
except for Evian, which is imported.

As a result of that report, the Indian government announced in July that new
standards for pesticide residues in bottled water will go into effect
in January 2004.

Pepsi and Coca Cola, multinational companies based in the U.S., each have
large shares of the Indian bottled soft drink market. Coca-Cola and Pepsi
officials in India immediately disputed CSE's soft drink findings and called for
a
new round of laboratory testing. Pepsi appealed to the Indian courts to stop
publication of the CSE report, calling the research methods "suspect."

On August 12, 2003 an Indian court ordered the federal government to test
Pepsi samples for pesticides, and the Delhi High Court asked the government
to develop new and tougher standards for pesticide contaminants in soft drinks.
Meanwhile, sales of bottled soft drinks in India have plummeted, and several
states in India have moved to test soft drinks, with one state refusing to
allow Pepsi and Coke products to be shipped from bottling plants until they
were tested, as a "precautionary measure."

In the U.S. and Europe, legally enforceable standards regulate water used in
bottled drinks. However, Indian laws currently exclude bottled soft drinks and
water from regulations concerning pesticides in food. CSE says that soft drink
manufacturers and the bottled water industry in India use large quantities of
ground water, which has become increasingly contaminated as levels have
dropped dramatically in many parts of the country.

CSE maintains that "pesticides are in manufactured consumables because
there are pesticides in the 'raw water' used. There are pesticides in the
source
water because there are pesticides being blatantly used in fields. Thus any
policy to provide consumers in India with quality consumables can do nothing
until it takes into account these deadly chemicals."

Sources: Colanisation's Dirty Dozen, Bottled Water Norms Notified, Down to
Earth, Science and Environment on-line, http://www.downtoearth.org.in ,
Hindu Business Line, August 5, 2003, Pepsi, Coke soft drinks contain
pesticides: CSE, Pepsi to be Tested for Toxins in India,
Reuters, August 12, 2003, CSE Press Release, August 13, 2003.

Contact: Centre for Science and the Environment, 41, Tughlakabad
Institutional Area, New Delhi-- 110062, India,
phone (91 011) 260-66854, 260-59810, 299-55410, 299-55781, 299-56394;
fax (91 011) 299-55879; email: cse@... ; http://www.cseindia.org

PANUPS is a weekly email news service, providing resource guides and
reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the mainstream
media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North America,
a non-profit and non-governmental organization working
to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and all
contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit
http://www.panna.org/donate .
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1002
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/message/15478
aspartame review: methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid toxicity:
Murray 8.15.3 rmforall

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA 505-986-9103

[NutraSweet, Equal, Canderel, Benevia, E951]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/983
aspartame & formaldehyde toxicity: Murray 8.15.3 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
for 1020 posts in a public searchable archive 118 members

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/ 15591 posts 684 members

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/989
EU votes 440 to 20 to approve sucralose, limit cyclamates & reevaluate
aspartame & stevia: Murray 4.12.3 rmforall

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm
Mark Gold exhaustively critiques European Commission Scientific
Committee on Food re aspartame (12.4.2): 59 pages, 230 references

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1018
aspartame toxicity coverup increases danger of corporate meltdown:
Michael C. Carakostas of Coca-Cola: Murray 8.11.3 rmforall
http://www.isrtp.org/new_members/members1.htm
The International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
Carakostas, Michael C., DVM, PhD
Director/Scientific & Regulatory Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company PO Drawer 1734 Atlanta, GA 30301
T. 404/676-4234 F. 404/676-7166 E-mail: mcarakostas@...
http://www2.coca-cola.com/ourcompany/columns_aspartame.html [photo]
Aspartame: The world agrees it's safe By Michael Carakostas, DVM, PhD
Director, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Coca-Cola

It is commendable that Carakostas mention the core problem, albeit
disparagingly: "During digestion, aspartame yields a very small amount of
methanol-- as do many other food substances. The body converts this
methanol to formaldehyde, which is instantly converted to formate.
Formate is quickly eliminated as carbon dioxide and water."

Plenty of evidence in the mainstream scientific literature since 1973
shows that as much as 30% of the formaldehyde is retained in the body as
toxic, cumulative adducts to the DNA, RNA, and proteins in all cells and
tissues, leading to pointed reports by informed doctors and experts.
Clearly, there are no safe levels for chronic, low-level formaldehyde
exposure. If just 10% of the methanol from six cans of diet soda is
retained in the body as toxic products of formaldehyde and formic acid,
that is sixty times the EPA limit for allowable formaldehyde from daily
drinking water.

http://www.dorway.com/barua.html
Dr. J. Barua (ophthalmic surgeon), Dr. Arun Bal (surgeon)
Emerging facts about aspartame.
Journal Of The Diabetic Association Of India 1995; 35 (4):
(79 references) barua@...
"...the total amount of methanol absorbed will be approximately
10% of aspartame ingested. An EPA assessment of methanol states
that methanol, 'is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate
of excretion once it is absorbed. The absorbed methanol is then
slowly converted to formaldehyde...'"
"Reaction of formaldehyde with DNA has been observed,
by spectrophotometry and electron microscopy, to result in
irreversible denaturation."
"DKP [from aspartame] has been implicated in the occurence of brain
tumors."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1016
President Bush & formaldehyde (aspartame) toxicity: Ramazzini Foundation
carcinogenicity results Dec 2002: Soffritti: Murray 8.3.3 rmforall

p. 88 "The sweetening agent aspartame hydrolyzes in the gastrointestinal
tract to become free methyl alcohol, which is metabolized in the liver
to formaldehyde, formic acid, and CO2. (11)" Medinsky MA & Dorman DC.
1994; Assessing risks of low-level methanol exposure. CIIT Act. 14: 1-7.

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2002 Dec; 982: 87-105.
Results of long-term experimental studies on the carcinogenicity of
formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in rats.
Soffritti M, Belpoggi F, Lambertin L, Lauriola M, Padovani M, Maltoni C.
Cancer Research Center, European Ramazzini Foundation for Oncology and
Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy. crcfr@...

Formaldehyde was administered for 104 weeks in drinking water supplied
ad libitum at concentrations of 1500, 1000, 500, 100, 50, 10, or 0 mg/L
to groups of 50 male and 50 female Sprague-Dawley rats beginning at
seven weeks of age.
Control animals (100 males and 100 females) received tap water only.
Acetaldehyde was administered to 50 male and 50 female Sprague-Dawley
rats beginning at six weeks of age at concentrations of 2,500, 1,500,
500, 250, 50, or 0 mg/L.
Animals were kept under observation until spontaneous death.
Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were found to produce an increase in total
malignant tumors in the treated groups and showed specific carcinogenic
effects on various organs and tissues. PMID: 12562630

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/910
formaldehyde & formic acid from methanol in aspartame:
Murray: 12.9.2 rmforall
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