Coca-Cola Settles Benzene Claims
可口可乐了结含苯饮料官司
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.
美联社亚特兰大电
原告称，可口可乐公司同意向购买两种饮料（含致癌物质苯）的消费者提供替代品，从而了结官司。

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.
根据协议，可口可乐公司向新泽西、堪萨斯和佛罗里达的消费者（在2006年9月前购买芬达菠萝饮料或者Vault Zero 饮料的）提供替换饮料。

Coca-Cola previously decided to voluntarily reformulate the two beverages in question, said Ray Crockett, a spokesman for the soft drink maker.
可口可乐发言人Ray Crockett说，公司之前就决定主动对这两种引起疑虑的饮料重新进行配方。

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.
原告律师同意撤销对可口可乐的起诉。包括百事在内的其他饮料公司仍未摆脱相关的官司。

"We've basically done the settlement as an expeditious way to get the issue behind us," Crockett said.
“我们基本上迅速结束了这场官司”，Ray Crockett说。

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.
目前进入市场的产品都是经过重新配方生产的，根据协议这些产品都贴有标签，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.
可口可乐还同意向4名原告赔付每人500美金，并支付原告的律师费。

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.
诉状中声陈，芬达菠萝饮料和Vault Zero 饮料的成分在某种情况下可能结合产生致癌物苯。可口可乐被指控违反质保承诺、从事不公平的欺骗性商业行为和不当得利。

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.