From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine

[MannyGoldstein]

Source: The New York Times

The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.

Many of them are children, poisoned at the hands of their unsuspecting parents.

The syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in antifreeze.

......

An examination of the two poisoning cases last year — in Panama and earlier in China — shows how China’s safety regulations have lagged behind its growing role as low-cost supplier to the world. It also demonstrates how a poorly policed chain of traders in country after country allows counterfeit medicine to contaminate the global market.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/06poison.html?hp

---

'Free' trade is ssssssooooooooo kewl! It's the gift that keeps on giving - obliteration of jobs, excruciating deaths for many thousands, AND lots more money for the Predator Class!

Once again, I'd like to thank the 'free' traders, particularly those 'Democrats' that voted for it (and are now back peddling as fast as they can) for giving The Times something to write about.

[formercia]

1. They use it as a cheap substitute for Glycerine.

been going on for a while now.

[arikara]

2. That's the stuff that poisons countless animals every year

For a couple of cents per gallon they could put something bitter into the antifreeze so that animals won't want to lick spills off the ground but that would cut into profits. So more innocents die because of corporate greed.

Good article, thanks for posting! It gives me another reason to avoid pharmaceutical OTC's and prescriptions.

[formercia]

3. Thank GHW Bush for opening trade talks with China

It was probably imported via a BFEE controlled Import-Export front corporation.

[MannyGoldstein]

12. But Bill Clinton Really Drove It Home

Edwards also voted for it.

[formercia]

22. DLC driven

Corporate lackey lite.

[Hekate]

4. Kick

Nothing I can add, except to curse Bushco for Fema-fying the FDA and every other federal organization that was set up to protect consumers.

Hekate

[NYC]

5. Recommended.

I read about diethylene glycol in medicine a few weeks ago. I don't think it was the same occurrence.

Edit: It also happened in Haiti 1995.

DEG poisonings have erupted occasionally since then in other parts of the world. In late 1995 and early 1996, more than 30 children were admitted to a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with sudden kidney failure. An investigation by Haitian health officials, the CDC and others discovered diethylene glycol in acetaminophen syrup manufactured in Haiti.


http://cbs2chicago.com/health/health_story_286180553.html

[Fovea]

6. Before Globalization China had a reasonable medicine supply

limited, but quality inspected by the government.

Just another reason to line the free traders up and give them all the medicine they can swallow.

[whistle]

7. This shit was used in U.S. and Canadian over the counter medicines

...back in the 1950s. I was just a kid but I recall my parents discussing this at the dinner table that antifreeze was found in medicine and alcohol based beverages.

[NYC]

9. 1937 Massengill.

It was an interesting story. You can find it through Google.

TIME Magazine, October 17, 1938, skimpy story:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,848353,00.html

[whistle]

11. Thanks, that was a decade before my time, but very interesting

...I do recall that diethylene glycol was used to improve the flavor of beer and certain wines until it was determined that the chemical caused tumor growth. One would think that over 70 years the FDA would ban the use of such a chemical from products that expose humans to such dangers.

[jmowreader]

24. That's the problem here. It IS illegal to put DEG in foods

This chemical will kill ya dead, and it's been illegal to use in consumable products since 1938. I would imagine that it's illegal to put this in food, drink, alcoholic beverages, pet foods or pharmaceuticals in any country in the world.

(They can't ban diethylene glycol because it is a very useful chemical.)

The problem here is manufacturers are getting too used to reading the documentation that comes with chemicals, assuming that just because it says "pharmaceutical grade glycerin" on the document there's actually pharmaceutical grade glycerin in the tote, and using the chemical without doing any confirmation testing.

[Purveyor]

10. K&R - thanks for posting. eom

[Gman]

8. You get what you pay for

isn't globalization wonderful for America. We were told it would be painful, but it was best for America.

[bonito]

13. Wow , and well said n/t

[Shallah Kali]

14. LATimes | Cleaning up China's honey (tainted with lead, toxic iron, & antibiotics

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chinahoney3may03,0,2147834.story?track=ntottext

Even when standards have been set, making them known to millions of far-flung peasants is an enormous task. Short-term profits are so important that farmers, traders and brokers have little incentive to change old practices.

The result is a constant stream of tainted and sometimes poisonous food. Last year, duck farmers added cancer-causing Sudan dye to their animal feed to make yolks redder and bring a higher price. In 2004, baby formula missing key nutrients left 13 infants dead and hundreds ill.

In 2002, Chinese honey was blocked first by the European Union and then the United States after shipments tested positive for chloramphenicol, an antibiotic banned in foods by many countries because it has been shown to cause a potentially fatal blood condition.

SNIP


"The Chinese life is not valuable," Sun said. "All the food is like junk food."

[nealmhughes]

15. I remember it happened in Italy or Austria -- in the Alps anyhow, where a cheap Lambrusco

type wine was adulturated with glycol to sweeten it and a whole lot of people died. About 20 years ago, if I recall, I was living in the UK and it was huge news there then.

[alfredo]

16. Ah, the magic of the marketplace.

[Cobalt Violet]

17. Scary, scary, scary article.

I don't want anything from china if I can help it. I just don't trust anything coming from that place.

[TheMadMonk]

18. IIRC di-ethylene glycol is the reason you have an FDA.

DEG in patent medicines was killing kids, so the FDA was created to police things sold to be ingested by people (foods and drugs).

[moggie]

23. Remind me again

why many Americans are campaigning against the FDA regulating "complementary and alternative medicine"?

[aquart]

19. They ain't backpeddling fast enough.

[kurth]

20. Made in China = The mark of death

Nothing good comes from that place.

[ohio2007]

27. ...but China is a developing nation

They get a free pass on everything "made in China "

lol

[skepticscott]

21. Next time a strict Libertarian

asks you what good the government has ever done, and advocates shutting down organizations like the FDA, show them this article. In the kind of country the Libertarians would have us live in, incidents like these would happen all the time (much more than they do now). The best we could do under their system is to punish the people responsible (if they would even let that be possible), but the Libertarians take a completely inadequate stance on proactive prevention of such tragedies.

[orleans]

25. too late for me to recommend, but i'm giving you a kick! n/t

[Junkdrawer]

26. Kick

:kick: