1.In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2.You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3.To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl . . . Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.

4.The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

5.To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

6.To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

7.To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

8.To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan;rap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

9.To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze fromyour windshield.

FYI:

1.The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It's pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

2.To carry Coca Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly Corrosive materials.

3.The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! Drink up! No joke. Think what coke and other soft drinks do to your teeth on a daily basis. A tooth will dissolve in a cup of coke in 24-48 hours

Many of the entries above are just simple household tips involving Coca-Cola. That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless from a safety standpoint -- you can use a wide array of common household substances (including water) for the same purposes; that doesn't necessarily make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft drinks contain carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains and dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for such purposes than Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic acid is relatively weak, however, and people have been drinking carbonated water for many years with no detrimental effects.

The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does contain small amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils in its formula) and phosphoric acid. However, all the insinuations about the dangers these acids might pose to people who drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: concentration. Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13 grams per gallon of syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total formula) to harm anyone, no matter how much Coke he guzzles. The only people who proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a tooth, or a nail in a matter of days are people who have never actually tried any of these things, because they just don't happen. (Anyone who conducts these experiments will find himself at the end of two days with a whole tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.)

The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's ever cleaned blood stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by the time he stops laughing he'll have forgotten about the citation he was going to give you.

Last updated: 20 November 2001.

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/acid.htm

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2001
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permisson

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