All soft drinks banned in Parliament

Reacting to a report published by the Centre for Science and Environment alleging that the bottled soft drinks owned by PepsiCo and Coke contain a deadly cocktail of pesticide residues, the government has decided not to serve the members of Parliament any of these drinks.

"12 major cold drink brands sold in Delhi and around contain a deadly cocktail of pesticide residues," CSE said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Also Read Pepsi, Coke contain pesticides: CSE

The ban was announced  by E Ahmed, chairman of the Committee on Food Management, while participating in an impromptu debate in Lok Sabha on the reported findings of high level of pesticides and insecticides in these drinks by Delhi-based NGO.

As the House was debating the matter, Ahmed of Muslim League said as the chairman of the Committee he had ordered immediate stoppage of supply of these drinks to the Parliament House.

According to the tests conducted by the Pollution Monitoring Laboratory of CSE, all samples contained residues of four extremely toxic pesticides and insecticides: lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos.

Three samples each of the 12 brands purchased from markets across the city, analysed in April-August and found to contain pesticides residues are Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Mirinda orange, Mirinda Lemon, Blue Pepsi, 7-Up, Coca Cola, Fanta, Limca, Sprite and Thumbs Up.