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Scientists Say Blunders
Abounded in Coke Health Panic BERT ROUGHTON LONDON The recent European health scare involving Coca-Cola probably can be attributed to a mass psychological reaction made worse by the way the media, the Belgian government and the company itself handled the crisis, independent scientists said. In a letter published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, the scientists argued that Coca-Cola's high profile coupled with domestic conditions in Belgium made the country ripe for panic. Benoit Nemery, a toxicologist and spokesman for the group that advises the Belgian government on health issues, contended the illnesses can be attributed to ``mass sociogenic illness.'' ``In vulgar terms, this is called mass hysteria,'' Nemery said in a telephone interview. ``We do not want to use that term because it's incorrect in psychiatric terms, and it doesn't do anybody any good to be called an hysteric.'' Nemery said the group of scientists is reluctant to blame anyone, but he said Atlanta-based Coca-Cola could have done more to contain the crisis in its sensitive early days. ``My impression is that the Coca-Cola Co. didn't manage the story very well,'' he said. ``They should have been more open. You would have thought that their management would have been more professional. It took more than a week before things appeared to be taken seriously by Coca-Cola.'' Coca-Cola has said the illnesses were caused by small amounts of a contaminant in the carbon dioxide used to add fizz to drinks at a Coca-Cola Enterprises plant in Antwerp and by fumes from cans transported in wooden pallets from a bottling plant in Dunkirk, France. Coca-Cola's initial response was a major miscalculation given the abnormal concern Belgians have had about food scares after some meat products were found to have been exposed to the cancer-causing substance dioxin. ``It was as if Belgium was let down once again,'' Nemery said. Moreover, Coca-Cola's historic reluctance to discuss the formula of its soft drink also was a problem. ``The fact that the Coca-Cola ingredients are secret didn't do them any good,'' the scientist said. ``The whole atmosphere of secrecy induces suspicion.'' At the same time, the Belgian government, already burned by the dioxin scare, was in no mood to go easy on Coke, he said. Very early in the crisis, advisers suggested the psychosomatic possibility to Health Minister Luc van den Bossche, who ignored it. Once van den Bossche took the extreme measure of banning all Coca-Cola products June 15, it proved difficult for him to say that no health risk was found in the beverages, Nemery said. Additionally, it would have been tough for the health minister, who had been on the job just a few weeks, to have told parents that their children were only engaging in psychosomatic behavior. For its part, the Belgian media particularly TV news reports added fuel to the fire by exaggerating medical problems and mixing the Coke issue with the much more serious dioxin controversy, Nemery said. The psychosomatic response theory, which has been suggested by scientists hired by Coca-Cola, was disputed by medical workers who treated the first groups of adolescents who reported experiencing nausea, headaches and vomiting after drinking the company's products. But Nemery said studies have found that health officials often resist the theory that these symptoms can be psychosomatic. He said studies have found that adolescent girls are most likely to exhibit such reactions. Of the 39 students who went to the hospital in Bornem on June 8 complaining they had gotten sick from drinking Coke, 27 were girls, school officials said. Of the 30 students who were sent to a hospital in Ghent a week later, 29 were adolescent girls. Nearly 250 people reported the beverages made them sick. The ban was lifted June 23, even though scientists hadn't yet established a clear cause for the illnesses. Coca-Cola began restocking Belgian supermarket shelves Friday as it attempts to recover from the four-week health scare. Coke trucks in Belgium were bedecked with huge signs proclaiming, ``Your Coca-Cola Is Back.'' Full-page ads appearing Friday in a major Belgian newspaper declared: ``The problems that affected some of our products are completely solved.'' Meanwhile, Coca-Cola recalled a new batch of mineral water in Poland, this time due to bacteria contamination. The recall was the second of the week in Poland. |