2007 08 31
By Stephen Fox | stephen@santafefineart.com
The third largest ingredient in Dasani is potassium chloride. If you
areto be put death, first you get a barbiturate, then a paralytic agent,
and then the chemical to stop your heart (what a coincidence!) you
guessed it: potassium chloride! "If you take everything out of the
water, you don't get the crisp, clean taste that consumers desire," was
the sanguine comment of Kim Price, spokesman for Coca-Cola. Question
from Student at Oregon State University: I just noticed potassium
chloride was listed as an ingredient in some bottled waters (Dasani, for
example). But I remember from Chemistry and other sources of
information KCl is used for lethal injections and is often times
hazardous... so why would it be in bottled water?
Corporate Party line Answer: Potassium is a mineral found in a variety
of natural foods and it is needed for your body to function properly.
The reason you may see Potassium Chloride (KCl) as an ingredient in
bottled waters is to help replenish a person's natural potassium stores.
The amount of KCl a person consumes through food and beverage
consumption is much less than is necessary for it to be harmful to a
person's health. In order for KCl to be toxic, a person would have to
consume more than 2500 mg/kg of KCl, which is an extremely large amount
of KCl.
After contacting Coca-Cola directly, a representative from Coca-Cola
stated that potassium chloride is added to their Dasani bottled water
"because consumers prefer it." After conducting several taste-test
studies, the results showed that consumers prefer water with the mineral
(Potassiu chloride) than without it. The representative stated that the
amount of KCl in the Dasani water is negligible according to FDA
standards. This means there is less than 5 mg of KCl in each bottle of
water. Another Coke representative, Ray Crockett, told Sun News last
week that “the amount of KCL is tiny; there are no health effects for
anybody, and that it is added for taste and to satisfy customer
preference.” In other words, according to Coke: NO PROBLEM!
Checking a little further, we found that Potassium Chloride has some
alarming properties: first, Potassium chloride occurs naturally as
sylvite and is also extracted from salt water and can be manufactured by
crystallization from solution, flotation or electrostatic separation
from suitable minerals. It is a by-product of the making of nitric acid
from potassium nitrate and hydrochloric acid. The majority of the
potassium chloride produced is used for making fertilizer, because the
growth of many plants depends on their potassium intake. As a chemical
feedstock it is used for the manufacture of potassium hydroxide and
potassium metal. It is used in water as a completion fluid in oil and
gas operations. Side effects can include gastrointestinal discomfort
including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding of the gut.
Overdoses cause hyperkalemia which can lead to paresthesia, cardiac
conduction blocks, fibrillation and arrhythmias.
Lethal injection has 3 steps: first, Sodium thiopental: to render the
“offender” unconscious; second, Pancuronium/Tubocurarine: to stop all
muscle movement except the heart. This causes muscle paralysis, collapse
of the diaphragm, and would eventually cause death by asphyxiation.
Last: Potassium chloride: to stop the heart from beating, and thus cause
death. In 1977, Jay Chapman, Oklahoma's state medical examiner,
proposed a new, 'more humane' method of execution: "An intravenous
saline drip shall be started in the prisoner's arm, into which shall be
introduced a lethal injection consisting of an ultra-short-acting
barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic." The People's
Republic of China began using this method in 1997, Guatemala in 1998,
and the Philippines in 1999; other countries have also legally, but not
practically adopted the method. Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program
used lethal injection (with drugs that differed from the modern method)
as one of several methods to destroy "life unworthy of life." ("Life
unworthy of life"(in German: "Lebensunwertes Leben") was a Nazi
designation for the segments of populace that, according to racial
policies of the Third Reich, had no right to live and thus were to be
"exterminated." This concept formed an important component of the
ideology of Nazism and eventually led to the Holocaust.) Among other
"contraindications" for taking potassium chloride as medicine are these:
kidney disease; Addison's disease; stomach ulcer or intestinal
blockage; and chronic diarrhea. There is another one, according to the
FDA which is almost never there to protect you: FDA pregnancy category
C.” This medication may be harmful to an unborn baby. Tell your doctor
if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant during treatment. It is
not known whether potassium chloride passes into breast milk or if it
could harm a nursing baby. Do not use this medication without telling
your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.” Yet there are no warnings
of any kind on a bottle of Dasani....
So if you drink a lot of Dasani, like 6-7 bottles a day, perhaps less,
you might develop some of these symptoms: paralysis, numbness or tingly
feeling, uneven heartbeat, feeling light- headed, fainting, chest pain
or heavy feeling, pain spreading to the arm or shoulder, nausea,
sweating, seizure (convulsions), or coma. If they persist or if you die
from "Dasani poisoning," on behalf of your living survivors, ask your
lawyer to get in touch with Neville Isdell, the Chairman and CEO of The
Coca-Cola Company. Contact information:(404) 676-2121 | 1 Coca Cola
Plz NW Atlanta, GA 30313. He has a phalanx of telephone operators who
won’t connect you, however, so you might prefer to directly speak to the
Vice President of Coca Cola for New Mexico, Antonio Anaya. Perhaps Mr.
Anaya will be more truthful to you about this issue than he was when he
told a Legislative Committee in 2006 that New Mexico would lose 600 jobs
if aspartame were banned, and in 2007 that the entire ban aspartame
bill reminded him of something out of “Twilight Zone.”
Our efforts might be productive, after all: in May 2007, Coca-Cola
reformulated two of its soft drinks in the US to halt a lawsuit alleging
they may contain the cancer-causing chemical, benzene. Coca-Cola, while
still denying the allegation, said it changed formulas in its Vault
Zero and Fanta Pineapple drinks in September 2006 to minimize benzene
formation, the settlement document says. PepsiCo, Coca- Cola's
arch-rival, which recently admitted that its bottled water comes
straight out of the tap, still has action pending against it . Benzene
is a known carcinogen and concerns over its presence in drinks went
public last year, following an investigation by BeverageDaily.com and US
lawyer Ross Getman. The widely used preservative sodium benzoate
breaks down to form benzene in drinks also containing either ascorbic
acid (vitamin C) or citric acid. America's soft drinks industry and food
safety officials had known this for 15 years, internal memos show,
although levels found were “not considered a risk to consumers' health.”
Coke said it would ensure anyone performing a Google search for
'benzene', together with either of the products, would be directed to a
special message on the Coca-Cola website.
News of Coca-Cola's reformulation is likely to spark more questions as
to why these ingredients are still being used in drinks. America's Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) made a private deal for the soft drinks
industry to "get the word out and reformulate", according to Greg
Diachenko, an FDA chemist present at meetings with soft drinks firms in
late 1990 and early 1991. However, independent testing, as well as
probes by the FDA and food safety officials in the UK, last year again
found benzene in some drinks. One ex-FDA official suggested the agency
has again fallen short. "Big companies are very powerful. If you're a
regulator with a tight budget, it could have been one of those closets
with skeletons in that you don't want to open," he said on condition of
anonymity. Soft drinks industry leaders admitted to BeverageDaily.com
that the message on benzene may have been lost in places since the
issue emerged in 1990. But they also argued sodium benzoate's ability
to kill bacteria both cheaply and effectively outweighed negligible
risks over benzene.
One final question for soft drink consumers: the primary ingredient
after water and sugar in all of them is always phosphoric acid, which
gives the drink its “zing.” Yet phosphoric acid is primarily used
outside of the soft drink industry as an industrial solvent, to clean
toilet bowls, and to oxidize raw steel, so that it can be painted. Is
this something you really want to drink or that your children should be
drinking?
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=1740
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