In a separate development, sales of Coca-Cola have been hit by suggestions that its drinks produced in India contained higher levels of pesticide residues than was healthy! A large number of bodies have joined in the local community's campaign demanding the plant be closed down and that tests be carried out on Coca-Cola to assess its safety. A lawsuit to this effect was thrown out in August, which prompted Coca-Cola to issue an angry comment claiming that the reports were scurrilous, unnecessarily scared large numbers of Coca-Cola's customers and put thousands of jobs in its plants throughout India at risk. Coca-Cola claims to employ in excess of 5,000 people in the country, not to mention the many thousands that are linked in some way to the product.