Reps. Pingree and DeLauro requested an investigation after private emails exchanges were published last week

On Monday, Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) requested the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General investigate the relationship between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Coca-Cola corporation following the publication of alarming private email exchanges between officials at the two organizations.

“The emails show a troubling pattern of the company using access to high-level CDC officials to shape debates over public health policy directly involving the nutritional value of its products,” the letter of request from the two congresswomen states.

The emails were published in a paper in the health policy journal Milbank Quarterly. That paper analyzed 295 pages of text from 86 emails obtained by the public health group U.S. Right To Know under the Freedom of Information Act. Of the non-profit’s 10 Freedom of Information Act requests, three were still pending at the time of publication, five were rejected, and only three were returned.