Coca-Cola Settles Benzene Claims
可口可樂了結含苯飲料官司
By HARRY R. WEBER
AP

ATLANTA (AP) - The Coca-Cola
Co. has agreed to offer replacements to people who purchased two soft drinks to settle lawsuits over ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene, the plaintiffs said Monday.
美聯社亞特蘭大電
原告稱，可口可樂公司同意向購買兩種飲料（含致癌物質苯）的消費者提供替代品，從而了結官司。

As part of the settlement in the cases in New Jersey, Kansas and Florida, the world's largest beverage maker agreed to offer replacement drinks to anyone who purchased Fanta Pineapple or Vault Zero before September 2006, according to a copy of the agreement.
根據協議，可口可樂公司向新澤西、堪薩斯和佛羅里達的消費者（在2006年9月前購買芬達菠蘿飲料或者Vault Zero 飲料的）提供替換飲料。

Coca-Cola previously decided to voluntarily reformulate the two beverages in question, said Ray Crockett, a spokesman for the soft drink maker.
可口可樂發言人Ray Crockett說，公司之前就決定主動對這兩種引起疑慮的飲料重新進行配方。

Lawyers for the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss their claims against Coca-Cola, Crockett said. Other soft-drink makers, including Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo
Inc., remain defendants in related lawsuits.
原告律師同意撤銷對可口可樂的起訴。包括百事在內的其他飲料公司仍未擺脫相關的官司。

"We've basically done the settlement as an expeditious way to get the issue behind us," Crockett said.
“我們基本上迅速結束了這場官司”，Ray Crockett說。

He said the reformulated products are currently making their way to the marketplace. The settlement agreement says the reformulated products have a label with a best-before date of January 2008 or later.
目前進入市場的產品都是經過重新配方生產的，根據協議這些產品都貼有標簽，最佳食用期在2008年1月之后。

Coca-Cola also agreed as part of the settlement to pay $500 to each of four plaintiffs and to pay the plaintiffs' attorneys an amount to cover their fees an expenses that is subject to an arbitrator's determination.
可口可樂還同意向4名原告賠付每人500美金，并支付原告的律師費。

The lawsuits alleged that ingredients in Fanta Pineapple and Vault Zero had the potential in certain circumstances to combine to form benzene, and asserted claims for breach of warranty, unfair and deceptive trade practices and unjust enrichment.
訴狀中聲陳，芬達菠蘿飲料和Vault Zero 飲料的成分在某種情況下可能結合產生致癌物苯。可口可樂被指控違反質保承諾、從事不公平的欺騙性商業行為和不當得利。

According to the settlement agreement, Coca-Cola continues to deny all of the allegations in the lawsuits.

The plaintiffs and their lawyers said in a statement that they are pleased with the settlement.

"We filed these lawsuits because our children shouldn't be exposed to benzene at any level," said Lisbeth Gordon of Crawfordville, Fla., an emergency room nursing supervisor and mother who was one of plaintiffs.

Coca-Cola began production of Vault Zero in February 2006 and has sold roughly 7.7 million individual units from that time through December 2006. From January 2003 through August 2006, it sold roughly 27.4 million individual units of Fanta Pineapple, according to the settlement papers.

It changed the formulation of the two products on or about Sept. 1, 2006, the settlement papers say.

Benzene can form in soft drinks containing vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. Scientists say factors such as heat or light exposure can trigger a reaction that forms benzene in the beverages.

Coca-Cola will no longer sell the two products in question with both sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid as ingredients.