Reasons Why I Don't Drink Coke (health, humanity and hope!)

Reasons why I don’t drink Coke

Health Risks
The first reason I don’t drink Coke is because I am concerned about the health risks. Coke is basically a mix of sugar, caffeine and chemicals. Coke claims the caffeine is ‘just for taste’, but the American Medical Association have tests showing that “most people cannot taste the difference between caffeinated and non-caffeinated sodas”. (click [1] for footnote and weblink at bottom of page). It doesn’t take a genius to know that caffeine is addictive and can keep people physiologically and psychologically dependent.[2] It’s also well-known that you are at considerable risk of ill health and associated problems if you regularly drink unhealthy chemical sodas like Coke. “Researchers at Harvard's School of Public Health tracked more than 91,000 women and found those who drank about a soda a day piled on 19 pounds over eight years. They also increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes - the most common form - by 83 percent compared to women who drank less than one soda a month.” [3] Even the non-sugar versions are thought to contribute to brain damage (especially in unborn children), osteoporosis (damaged bones) [4] and other unpleasant side-effects including dehydration, ulcers, headaches and depression.[5] In fact, Coke’s chemical make-up is so perverse that Indian farmers are now using it as an effective pesticide! [6]

Profit Before Safety
Another reason I don’t drink Coke is because Coca-Cola’s management are arrogant money-grubbers who can’t be trusted. Time and time again they lie - especially when it comes to putting their profit before our safety. They are involved in major ongoing health scares around the world. For example, were you aware that in Europe in 1999, Coke had to recall between 14 and 17 million cases of its products due to health scares involving e coli, fungicide contamination, mold and unidentified bacteria being found in their drinks? [7] Or take Dasani, Coke’s ‘healthy‘ bottled water. They call it the ‘purest water on earth’… but it’s actually just tap water with added chemicals! [8] And it’s not pure. In the United Kingdom, it was so highly contaminated with bromate, a carcinogenic substance, Coke had to recall 500,000 bottles! [9] Incidentally, this chemically polluted water cost Brits over 3,000 times the price of London tap water. [10] Dasani was never sold again in the UK, and they haven’t dared to sell it in Europe, but it is still knowingly sold in other regions around the world. But it’s not just one brand that has been proven dangerous. The Indian Government banned a variety of Coke drinks being sold in its parliament after it examined and confirmed scientific evidence that they contained a dangerous concentration of different pesticides and insecticides including DDT. [11] Despite the independently confirmed evidence, Coke continues to deny that its products are hazardous to our health.

Knowingly Profiting From Poisons
While we’re talking about India, did you know that the BBC did a special investigation into Coke selling its toxic waste by-products as ‘fertiliser’ to Indian farmers? The sludge that Coke told farmers to put on their crops was tested at Exeter University in the UK and found to be super-high in lead and cadmium, both highly poisonous. The levels of these substances were so high that there were grave concerns that they could be affecting pregnant women in the area, with an increase in miscarriages, stillbirths and premature deliveries. “According to Britain's leading poisons expert, Professor John Henry, consultant at St Mary's Hospital in London, immediate steps should be taken by the authorities in India to ban the practice (of Coke selling their ‘fertiliser’) immediately. The levels of toxins found in the samples would, he said, cause serious problems - polluting the land, local water supplies and the food chain.” [12]

Support of Nazism and Extreme Fascism
Another reason I don’t drink Coke is because they promote bigotry and racism. In fact, Coke have a long history of racism and fascism. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s and into the Second World War they actively supported the Nazis in Germany, whilst their bosses in the US still pretended to be ‘patriotic’ to the States. Walter Oppenhof, Coke’s German company lawyer was so confident that no-one would find out that he encouraged Max Keith, Coke’s German Chairman, to actively win favour with the Nazi party. This included attending rallies, promoting Nazism and encouraging anti-semitism. When the Nazis starting invading other countries, the two men were employed by the Nazis, in the Office of Enemy Property, to take over all soft drink plants that they captured. They travelled with Nazi troops and set up Nazi Coca-Cola factories in six captured European countries. They staffed these factories with kidnapped civilians, who were forced to work for Coke’s profits.[13] Professor Peter Barton Hutt, writing in a Harvard law paper, speaks of Coke’s “outright endorsement of the regime” and of the fact that “Americans were not aware of Coca-Cola’s activities in Germany and so did not appreciate the contradictions inherent in Coca-Cola’s advertising during WWII.” This is how Coke does their business, by funding murder but pretending to be innocent. He also notes that Max Keith created Fanta as a drink for Nazis when Germany was finally recaptured by the Allies. Coke continue to support brutal regimes around the world, it helps keep their labour costs low. Professor Hutt in his informative paper, discusses, amongst other things Coke’s endorsements of the murder of Guatemalan workers in the 1970s, Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and their support for the brutal Abacha regime in Nigeria in the 1990s.[14]

Promoting Racism At All Levels
In the last five years Coke have been sued and found guilty in a number of major class actions for racial discrimination, intimidation and abuse in the US.[15] They were sued in the largest class-action of its kind and subsequently have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars towards 2,000 Black American employees who suffered long-term abuse and discrimination.[16] Their racism even extends to their customers. For years they have been selling expired drinks to Black and Hispanic neighbourhoods in the US often repackaging them to look new.[17] Recently Coke have claimed that they do not have a problem with racism, but as is so often the case, their promises to change their ways have come to nothing.[18] As the Reverend Jesse Jackson pointed out, in 2000 there was no-one of Hispanic heritage on the Board of Directors, and only one person of African heritage in the previous 20 years.[19] It seems as far as Coke is concerned, if you’re not white, you don’t count (except for their profit, of course).

Widespread Environmental Destruction
I don’t drink Coke because they don’t give a dime about the state of this world. There are lots of examples of the environmental destruction that Coke dishes out in its pursuit of more profit, but the following example takes the biscuit. Picture Kerala, India in 1998 – fertile, rich in agricultural land, growing a wide variety of crops, irrigated by local farmers along lush waterways and from deep underground wells. You may have seen ‘Hidden India: The Kerala Spicelands’ the award-winning PBS documentary [20] which explored this beautiful region. When Coke saw how water-rich the region was, they decided it would be the ideal place to set up a factory. They built a 17 hectare site and started pumping that underground water supply for all it was worth. With the continent’s largest production plant and pumps draining up to one million litres per day, it’s no wonder that with Coke’s greed and stupidity just seven years later local water supplies are at the point of exhaustion, ancient wells are drained dry, and agricultural land is destroyed beyond repair. The loss of this land means the loss of livelihood for over 2,000 farming families. The little water that remains is no longer fit for human or animal use as Coke dumps its toxic waste water directly into the ground, poisoning the land and frustrating any hopes of people being able to use their own water for some time. To add insult to injury, Coke now delivers a minimal level of drinking and washing water in tankers to these farming communities, because they’ve so depleted the local natural reserves.[21] Coke sucks! In a separate incident, they’ve also been prosecuted by the Supreme High Court for painting adverts onto the Himalayan mountains! [22]

Financial Mismanagement and Bullying
Nearer to home, Coke is misusing money hand over fist, and its shares are decreasing in value year [23] on year.[24] “Goldman Sachs analyst Marc Cohen, who has been covering the Atlanta-based soft drink firm for almost two decades, said he has never seen investors so pessimistic about Coca-Cola's prospects over a five-year horizon.” [25] It faces ongoing government investigation both in the US and Europe over its dubious financial practices and the current corrupt management . In one high profile example, Matthew Whitley, the company’s former director of finance for supply management in the fountain division prosecuted Coca-Cola claiming it “conspired to and ran the Fountain Division as an illegal racketeering enterprise", that they “executed their illegal activities using theft, fraud, and deception to cheat stockholders, customers, and competitors” further, Coke used “extortionate threats, intimidation, and fear against [Coke] employees to coerce their complicity in the racketeering enterprise” they “obstructed justice to cover-up their crimes” then tried to “conceal the availability of information from official proceedings, and hinder and prevent the communication to law enforcement of information relating to the commission of these offenses." [26] Coke admitted to fraud, and settled out of court – the Securities and Exchange Commission are still investigating them.[27] In Europe, under threat of heavy prosecution by the European Union, Coca-Cola admitted to illegal sales practices “that helped it win roughly half of the soft drink market in Europe.” [28] Down in Brazil Coke are currently being investigated for $2.2 billion of tax evasion.[29] They seem to have no regard for law or human decency, as long as it’s making them a profit. Maybe that’s why they can use child labour in El Salvador to harvest sugar for their drinks. (If you think this is unacceptable, the web-link at the bottom of this page includes a protest letter to Coke).[30]

Aggressive Marketing to Children
In fact, Coca-Cola must be just about the most aggressive company to ever sell nutritionally worthless, overpriced, possibly dangerous sugar drinks. Coke spends billions of dollars on advertising each year. Most of this is aimed at school age children, and is incredibly effective. In North America, Coke has exclusive contracts for vending machines and ‘pouring rights’ in many schools, with rewards for schools who consume at ‘target levels’. This is clearly linked to many childhood problems such as obesity, tooth decay, and the like.[31] They continually seek younger and younger ‘consumers’ of their unhealthy chemical swill. This includes heavy marketing and targeting of primary and pre-school children through promotions, give-aways, sponsorship and advertising, whilst claiming there is no link between their products and obesity or tooth decay. This tactic of lies and misinformation has been widely condemned by nutritionists, educationalists and parents. This is probably the most well-documented of Coke’s offences, and has caught the public imagination through the outcry over Coke sponsoring children’s films such as Harry Potter.[32] Around the world Coke is seen as the enemy of children’s health as they are so persistent in pushing this addictive ‘liquid candy’ on kids. For example, in Britain, the Select Committee on Health for the UK Parliament has been investigating Coke for ‘Broadcasting Bad Health’.[33] This a 31 page report which shows how junk food companies such as Coke are aggressively marketing their products in schools and to children around the world. It notes that Coke is one of the biggest marketers in the world and has a $1.5 billion annual marketing spend. It also demonstrates (under a section entitled ‘Nutrition Messages: How Companies Skew The Science’) how Coke is involved in manipulating facts by setting up fake health advisory groups such as ‘The International Life Science Institute’ (co-founded by Coke in 1978) which promote nonsensical claims to justify unhealthy foods. In one of its bogus reports, the ILSI claimed that ‘intake of sugars is inversely associated with the prevalence of obesity’.[34] In other words, the more Coke you drink, the thinner you get! It’s hard to be more deceitful than that!

Stubborn Self-Interest
Coke has been warned by financial and legal analysts to back away from this aggressive attitude, but they just won’t listen. Cokes offences against kids cover pages, but I’ll leave this point with an example which sums up their unreasonable attitude. In 2002, Coke tried to sue 14 year old Mattias Svensson for registering the domain name http://www.sprite.nu/. It was clear from the beginning that Coke was only interested in their own egotistic ambition. They had no interest in talking with the boy, or finding out for what purpose he had registered the domain. It turns out Mattias had set up ‘Internet Sprite Magazine’ to offer children “information on school subjects like chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine” [35] but instead of engaging in sensible discussion, Coke sent aggressive letters to the family, threatening them with legal action. When the case went to court it was dismissed straight away on the grounds that Coke’s reasoning and evidence didn’t take into account any factors except for their own self-interest.

Final Straw
The final straw was hearing about how Coke continue to treat the genuine complaints and concerns of their own workers. There are obviously all the workers of different ethnicities who’ve had to endure Coke’s racial discrimination and abuse; then there are people like Matthew Whitley who tried to warn the management that they couldn’t carry on with their oppressive and illegal labour and financial practices. They didn’t listen, and sacked him, so he successfully sued Coke for fraud, intimidation, extortion, coercion, threats against workers, etc, and they settled out of court to avoid the bad publicity. There’s also the story about Coke sacking one of their own truck drivers for drinking a rival cola! (It turns out the guy, Rick Bronson, was a union leader and Coke had been looking for a way to get rid of him). Many people believe this is an ‘urban myth’, but as with so many of these cases, it’s painfully true.[36]

Coke Responsible For Murders
However, the most shocking and horrible of all the stories comes from Colombia. Simply put, it states that Coca-Cola has supported and assisted paramilitary thugs in the murder of nine of their own workers. These men were branded as ‘troublemakers’ by managers at Coca-Cola’s Panamco and Femsa bottling plants simply for reporting abusive management and wanting to improve their working environments. In January 2004, a delegation from New York City, headed by respected city councillor Hiram Monserrate “spent 10 days visiting sites around Colombia, where Coca-Cola’s bottling plants and its subsidiaries, Panamco/FEMSA, have been held accountable for using paramilitary forces”.[37] The forces in question are the notorious drug criminals the “United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia” (AUC) who have recently been indicted by the US government for “bringing more than 17 tons of cocaine into the United States and Europe in the past five years. AUC leaders are also accused of directly controlling the production, protection and distribution elements of the lucrative and often violent cocaine drug trade.” [38] These are Coke’s colleaugues in Colombia.[39]

Confirmation From New York City Delegation
The NYC delegation returned “with testimonies of systematic murder, torture, kidnapping and intimidation.” [40] In fact the report detailed “a total of 179 major human rights violations of Coca-Cola's workers, including nine murders.” [41] Further, it explained that family members of workers had been abducted and tortured, (this is backed up by international human rights groups such as Amnesty International) [42] and added that “paramilitary violence against workers was done with the knowledge of and likely under the direction of company managers. The physical access that paramilitaries have had to Coca-Cola bottling plants is impossible without company knowledge.” It also reported ”that Coca-Cola's complicity in the situation is deepened by its repeated pattern of bringing criminal charges against union activists who have spoken out about the company's collusion with paramilitaries. These charges have been dismissed without merit on several occasions.” [43] As the evidence mounts, it becomes clear that Coca-Cola are the real criminals.[44] Since this in-depth investigation by NYC, groups at some of the most respected universities and colleges across the US and UK are wising up and boycotting Coke for their human rights abuses. [45] These include internationally renowned centres of excellence such as Berkeley,[46] New York University,[47] Harvard,[48] Yale,[49] Rutgers,[50] Macalester,[51] and University College Dublin.[52] On many occasions Coke has unsuccessfully tried to encourage others to dismiss or ignore these claims. Academics, researchers and professors have all seen through Coke’s lies, and decided that the taste is not worth it.

Many Alternatives - Join the Worldwide Boycott of Coca-Cola!
In finishing, I ask you on behalf of decent people worldwide, please don’t drink Coca-Cola or any of their products until they investigate these issues, publicly state their guilt, and show they have changed their ways. There are many alternatives to Coca-Cola - the safest and healthiest is not to drink fizzy sodas at all. If you still want to drink sodas, support local brands,[53] please don’t buy anything with the Coca-Cola name or logo on it (note: on most packaging you need to check the small print on both sides).

If any of these reasons have made you think, I ask you to discuss these things with your friends, family and work colleagues. If you feel any of these things are important, please don’t buy Coke, let Coke know (you can call their helpline, write or email them here http://www.coke.net/webapps/pubinquiry/PublicInquiry – but be warned they will likely tell you a pack of lies!)[54] and let others know too.[55]

For further information on Coca-Cola’s consistently bad human rights record over the last 60 years, see Professor Peter Barton Hutt’s excellent law paper for Harvard, “The Image and Politics of Coca-Cola: From the Early Years to the Present” (weblink here http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/398/AlOthman.html).

For more information, materials and links on the worldwide boycott of Coca-Cola, see: Campaign to Stop Killer Coke


Not the Real Thing!
The purpose of the boycott is not to inflict suffering on Coke's employees, it is to help those employees, who have themselves called for this boycott. (See the above link). It seems like Coke's management will only take these issues seriously when they see it is affecting their business. If that is what it takes to embarrass and shame the hypocrites in Coke's management to get Coke to act responsibly, then that is what must be done.

It was only through wide-spread consumer pressure and boycotts backing up Coke employees in over 50 countries in the 1980s that Coke intervened to stop the systematic murder and oppression of their workers in Guatemala. If it worked then, it can work now.

Note on references: All web-links were live November 20, 2004. Coke is the #1 advertiser in the world, so many news carriers won’t cover critical stories for fear of losing their advertising revenue. If links don’t work, try keywords (ie "Coca-Cola boycott") in an online search engine such as Google.

>>>>>>>>

[1] “Study disputes soft drink manufacturers on caffeine” CNN, August 14, 2000
[2] ibid
[3] “Soda ups risk of diabetes, weight gain” Boston Herald, August 25, 2004
[4] “Ask the Doctor” BBC Health, August 18, 2000
[5] “Diet Coke Addicts” Stanford University Daily, October 7, 2004 (and comments)
[6] “Farmers use Coke to control pests” Ananova, November 4, 2004
[7] “Coke Update” Food & Drink Weekly, July 19, 1999
[8] "Bottled Twaddle” Scientific American, July 2003
[9] “Dasani UK delay cans Europe sales” BBC Business News, March 24, 2004
[10] “Coke attempts to tap into UK water sales” CNBC, March 2, 2004
[11] “India finds pesticides in colas” BBC World News, February 4, 2004
[12] “Coca-Cola's toxic India fertiliser” BBC World News, July 25, 2003
[13] “Coca Cola Goes to War” University Of Virginia, September 30, 2004
[14] “The Image and Politics of Coca-Cola” Harvard Legal Electronic Document Archive, April 16th, 2001
[15] “Local Coke plant named in suit” Cincinnati Business Courier, May 2, 2003
[16] “Coke Settles Suit For Record $192.5M” CBS News, November 16, 2000
[17] “Workers contend Coke sent old soda to minority areas” The New York Times, May 19, 2002”
[18] “Black Coca-Cola Workers Still Angry” Washington Post, April 18, 2002
[19] “Debates of The Senate” Hansard, March 12, 2001
[20] “Hidden India: The Kerala Spicelands” PBS Documentary
[21] “Coke on trial as Indian villagers accuse plant of sucking them dry” The Guardian, November 19, 2003
[22] “Coke paints the Himalayas red” BBC Business News, August 15, 2002
[23] “Coca-Cola shares lose their fizz” BBC Business News, October 16, 2002
[24] “NYSE:KO, last 5 years” CNN Money, Daily Report
[25] “Analysts: Coke may cut earnings” CNN Money, November 10, 2004
[26] “U.S. Attorney's Office investigating Coca-Cola” Atlanta Business Chronicle, July 11, 2003
[27] “SEC investigating Coca-Cola” Atlanta Business Chronicle, January 14, 2004
[28] “EU reaches Coca-Cola settlement” CNN Business, October 19, 2004
[29] “Coca-Cola's Brazil Unit May Face Lower House Probe” Bloomberg News, June 3, 2004
[30] “El Salvador: Hazardous Child Labor on Sugar Plantations” Human Rights Watch, November, 2004
[31] “The Growing Political Movement Against Soft Drinks in Schools” Medical Student Journal of the American Medical Association, November 6, 2002
[32] “Harry Potter and the not-so-wizard Coca-Cola wheeze” The Daily Mail, October 18, 2001
[33] “Supplementary Memorandum by The Food Commission (OB 27A)” UK Parliament, May 10, 2004
[34] “Broadcasting Bad Health” UK Food Commission, July, 2003
[35] “The Coca-Cola Company v. Mr. Goran Inge Svensson“ National Arbitration Forum, February 27, 2002
[36] “Coke worker sacked for drinking Pepsi” Sydney Morning Herald, June 15, 2003
[37] “City Council Delegation to Colombia Reports on Human Rights Claims Against Coca-Cola” NY News, February 2, 2004
[38] “Colombian paramilitary leader indicted” CNN World, September 24, 2002
[39] “Gunned Down: Threats Against Labour and the Church“ The Economist, March 21, 2002
[40] “City Council Delegation to Colombia Reports on Human Rights Claims Against Coca-Cola” NY News, February 2, 2004
[41] “New Yorkers Can Coca Cola” New Colombia News Agency, May 25, 2004
[42] “Colombia: Fear For Safety” Amnesty International, June 25, 2002
[43] “New Yorkers Can Coca Cola” New Colombia News Agency, May 25, 2004
[44] “Soft Drink, Hard Times” Time, July 27, 2003
[45] “Students call for Coke boycott” Atlanta Business Chronicle, November 24, 2004
[46] “Students Charge Coca-Cola with Persecution” Berkeley Daily Planet, May 16, 2003
[47] “CAS council votes to support Coke ban” Washington Square News, November 10, 2004
[48] “One Coke Over the Line” The Harvard Daily Crimson, January 23, 2004
[49] “Coca-Cola CEO talks ethics” Yale Daily News, April 1, 2004
[50] “Putting Coke On Ice?” Home News Tribune, May 2, 2004
[51] “Coca-Cola Contract Pending Company Investigation, Says Administration” The Mac Weekly, October 22, 2004
[52] “Why We Boycott Coke” University College Dublin, September 6, 2004
[53] In the UK try Orangina, KA Cola, Tizer, Irn Bru, or KA Ginger Beer - all widely available, produced by A.G Barr of Glasgow, Scotland. See: http://www.agbarr.co.uk/agbarr/brands/chiller_new2.htm
[54] For more information, see: http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/
cocacolacampaign/cokevtruth.html
[55] The Petition Site have a shareable petition for Coke in Colombia: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/293195312