I wanted to ask this question in friendly territory : )

Have you all heard about the massive problems Coke is having overseas? Lots of people becoming sick, now a ban on Coke products. The overseas market is where Coke does MOST of it's business.

Anyway, Coke has always produced a high quality, very visible product. They maintain one of the most recognized and popular brand identities in the world. Obviously, they have a high degree of professional, quality people working for them.

Anyone care to speculate that Coke may be suffering from a problem in their automated production? Could this be due to a possible Y2k glitch?

Just want to if this is even a technical possibility in the production of a problem like this. I didn't count on this kind of tainted product availability...

Thanks,

Mike ===========================================================

-- Anonymous, June 21, 1999

Answers

Michael

Do you have any links?

-- Anonymous, June 22, 1999

Don't know. (Ain't that the truth!)

Diane

Coke apologes to Belgians over health scare
RAF CASERT, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/06/22/ international0503EDT0489.DTL

[snip]

Health officials in both countries have vowed to continue some sort of a ban until a precise explanation for the illnesses is available. The 15-nation EU's Executive Commission has said Belgium and France would conduct inspections on Coca-Cola plants over the next few days.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has blamed defective carbon dioxide, used to put fizz in its drinks, for problems at its Antwerp manufacturing plant in Belgium. The company also said the outside of cans made in Dunkirk were contaminated with a wood preservative during shipping.

The company said these two unrelated problems have led to similar symptoms of nausea and vomiting. One company-commissioned study suggested the health problems were in the victims' heads.

[snip--to end]

-- Anonymous, June 22, 1999

Diane,

I just got chills from the story you just posted. Absolute deja vu. It was like I was reading a dream I had.

I'm just speculating about *if* this were a problem associated to y2k. I hadn't thought about all the products that could become tainted as a result of glitches and the deaths, illness that could come from it.

Anyway...

How the heck do you make defective carbon dioxide? I'm sure it's possible but on this massive a scale?

And...wood perservative during "shipping"?

Uh...something doesn't sound right here. If the perservative was added during production, yes. But during shipping? The Coke would have to be inside the container and sealed...with the additive coming where, when, how?

It doesn't add up.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 1999

The skin is permeable to some organic insecticides and fungicides. So contamination on the outside of a can could have an impact.

Carbon dioxide is always carbon dioxide, it doesn't spoil. But some other gas may have been mixed with it by mistake.

Mistakes happen. Read about Union Carbide at Bhopal, 1964.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 1999

Make that Bhopal, 1984. Typo. Bummer.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 1999

Tom,

Forgive me, I guess I just wasn't clear in my post. I'm not saying that this is problem Coke is having is caused by Y2k. It does make me wonder however.

The "light" that went on for me when I thought about this situation was that tainted food products might be caused by y2k errors in data and production, etc.

The fact that a "wood perservative" makes me wonder too. I don't know about the ability of chemicals to work their way through aluminum but could they do this in several places at the same time? After all, Coke distributes from multiple facilities all over Europe, not just one. Could it be possible that this would happen in every area? It just seems unlikely to me.

Regardless of Coke, what I was thinking of was the multiple points of possible contamination in the production of not only the final food product but even the ingredients contained within. Each of these points could be compromised by a problem due to a y2k glitch. That includes the ingredients, the preservatives, the packaging...on and on. This could cause a serious disruption in the availability of many food items.

But the really frightening thing is that, in essence, these problems could kill or sicken millions.

This is another reason why it might be essential to prepare now as opposed to later.

Just me

-- Anonymous, June 23, 1999