What the HELL is going on in China?

[SoCalDem]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4779165.html

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE!!


May 6, 2007, 12:24AM
Syrupy killer in medicine bottle

Records show in 3 of last 4 global cases, the poison sold as glycerin was made in China

By WALT BOGDANICH and JAKE HOOKER
New York Times

A syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in antifreeze. It also is a killer. And the deaths, if not intentional, are often no accident. 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.

SNIP...

In this environment, Wang Guiping, a tailor with a ninth-grade education and access to a chemistry book, found it easy to enter the pharmaceutical supply business as a middleman. He quickly discovered what others had before him: that counterfeiting was a simple way to increase profits.

And then people in China began to die.

Cheating the system

Wang spent years as a tailor in the manufacturing towns of the Yangtze Delta, in eastern China. But he did not want to remain a common craftsman, villagers say. He set his sights on trading chemicals, a business rooted in the many small chemical plants that have sprouted in the region.

"He didn't know what he was doing," Wang's older brother, Wang Guoping, said in an interview. "He didn't understand chemicals." but he did understand how to cheat the system.

Wang Guiping, 41, realized he could earn extra money by substituting cheaper, industrial-grade syrup — not approved for human consumption — for pharmaceutical grade syrup. To trick pharmaceutical buyers, he forged his licenses and laboratory analysis reports, records show. Wang later told investigators that he figured no harm would come from the substitution, because he initially tested a small quantity. He did it with the expertise of a former tailor.

He swallowed some of it. When nothing happened, he shipped it.One company that used the syrup beginning in early 2005 was Qiqihar No.2 Pharmaceutical, about 1,000 miles away in the far northeastern province of Heilongjiang. A buyer for the factory had seen a posting for Wang's syrup on an industry Web site.

After a while, Wang set out to find an even cheaper substitute syrup so he could increase his profit even more, according to the Chinese investigator. In a chemical book, he found what he was looking for: another odorless syrup — diethylene glycol. At the time, it sold for 6,000 to 7,000 yuan a ton, or about $725 to $845, while pharmaceutical-grade syrup cost 15,000 yuan, or about $1,815, according to the investigator.

snip...

[Eurobabe]

1. I don't know, but I don't want any of their imported shit

in my house. Food, clothing, drink, etc. Thankfully I live in a country with protectionist trade rules (ie NOT the US)

Make your house a China-Free zone!

[HereSince1628]

2. The stories exemplify why regulation and drug monitoring

of food and drug quality are essential for public safety. It also makes American's long for safer days when the wholesomeness of foods and safety and efficacy of drugs could be taken for granted. Deregulation is about to die from the poisoned fruits it's borne.

[MADem]

5. You might not know if you're getting Chinese goods

I'm sure the folks buying MENU foods products, that swell Canadian pet food, for example, had no idea there was a Chinese ingredient in it.

Not every product has "Country of Origin" on it for every single item.

I don't want any of their stuff either. I'm divesting myself of "stuff" anyway. We have too much of it, it weighs us down, really.

[kath]

80. Vitamin tablets full of lead coming from China are a real problem as well -

but I looked on the label from the vitamins we have from Target, and there was NO indication of country of origin. :-(

[Maraya1969]

81. Well fuck. It's better to spend the extra money and get top quality vitamins

from a health food store. And at many stores there are people who can muscle test you to see if a product will be beneficial to your body.

[Shallah Kali]

85. That is not always a guarntee of quality - check with sites like consumerlab

http://www.consumerlab.com

read the sample free reports and see which brands tend to actually have what is promised in the product and nothing that shouldn't be in it. on a recent test of vitamins they found lead in one brand, sorry I can't recall which one now.

Also Organic Consumers ( http://www.organicconsumers.org/nutricon.cfm ) has info on how many companies lable their products natural when they have chemicals in them. Please consider signing and passing on this petition to require vitamins to truely be natural and/or organic when the label says so:

Sign the NOS Petition :
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), along with the Naturally Occuring Standards Group, is launching a new "truth in labeling" campaign that will enable consumers to distinguish between those vitamins and supplements that are truly natural or organic, and those that simply claim to be.
In a nutshell, the new Naturally Occurring Standard (NOS) will allow consumers to know whether a vitamin/supplement product:

* Contains synthetic ingredients.
* Contains genetically engineered ingredients.
* Only contains ingredients found in nature.
* Only contains ingredients that are sustainably harvested and fairly-traded.
* Is organic.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/nutricon/nutripetition.cfm

[Duppers]

84. DO YOU TAKE Vit. C? Then read this....IMPORTANT

It's Not Just Pet Food
By Peter Kovacs
The Washington Post
Monday, April 23, 2007; A17

Lost amid the anxiety surrounding the tainted U.S. pet food supply is this sobering reality: It's not just pet owners who should be worried. The uncontrolled distribution of low-quality imported food ingredients, mainly from China, poses a grave threat to public health worldwide.

Essential ingredients, such as vitamins used in many packaged foods, arrive at U.S. ports from China and, as recent news reports have underscored, are shipped **WITHOUT** inspection to food and beverage distributors and manufacturers. Although they are used in relatively small quantities, these ingredients carry enormous risks for American consumers.

One pound of tainted wheat gluten could, if undetected, contaminate as much as a thousand pounds of food.

Unlike imported beef, which is inspected at the point of processing by the U.S. Agriculture Department, few practical safeguards have been established to ensure the quality of food ingredients from China.

Often, U.S. officials don't know where or how such ingredients were produced. We know, however, that alarms have been raised about hygiene and labor standards at many Chinese manufacturing facilities. In China, municipal water used in the manufacturing process is often contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides and other chemicals. Food ingredient production is particularly susceptible to environmental contamination.

Equally worrisome, U.S. officials often lack the capability to trace foreign-produced food ingredients to their source of manufacture. In theory, the Bioterrorism Prevention Act of 2001 provides some measure of traceability. In practice, the act is ineffective and was not designed for this challenge. Its enforcement is also shrouded in secrecy by the Department of Homeland Security.

Even if Food and Drug Administration regulators wanted to crack down on products emanating from the riskiest foreign facilities, they couldn't, because they have no way of knowing which ingredients come from which plant. This is why officials have spent weeks searching for the original Chinese source of the contaminated wheat gluten that triggered the pet food crisis.

That it was pet food that got tainted -- and that relatively few pets were harmed -- is pure happenstance. Earlier this spring, Europe narrowly averted disaster when a batch of vitamin A from China was found to be contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii, which has been proved to cause infant deaths. Thankfully, the defective vitamin A had not yet been incorporated into infant formula. Next time we may not be so fortunate.

Currently, most of the world's vitamins are manufactured in China.

****UNABLE TO COMPETE, THE LAST U.S. PLANT MAKING VITAMIN C CLOSED A YEAR AGO.****

One of Europe's largest citric acid plants shut last winter, and only one vitamin C manufacturer operates in the West. Given China's cheap labor, artificially low prices and the unfair competitive climate it has foisted on the industry, few Western producers of food ingredients can survive much longer.

Western companies have had to invest heavily in Chinese facilities. These Western-owned plants follow strict standards and are generally better managed than their locally owned counterparts. Nevertheless,

****80 PERCENT OF THE WORLD'S VITAMIN C IS NOW MANUFACTURED IN CHINA****

-- much of it unregulated and some of it of questionable quality.

...To protect consumers here, we must revise our regulatory approaches.

The first option is to institute regulations, based on the European model, to ensure that all food ingredients are thoroughly traceable. We should impose strict liability on manufacturers that fail to enforce traceability standards.

...Food safety is a bipartisan issue: Congress and the administration must work together and move aggressively to devise stricter standards. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, has deplored dangerous levels of lead in vitamin products originating in China. We must get to the bottom of this pressing public health issue, without self-defeating finger-pointing.

The United States is sitting on powder keg with uncontrolled importation and the distribution of low-quality food ingredients. Before it explodes -- putting more animals and people at risk -- corrective steps must be taken..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201163.html



The caps in the post are mine, not the article's author's.

[laylah]

22. I agree with you,

48; however, in the US it is quite the challenge since the bastards (both here and there) consider the bottom line to be the almight dollar/yen, not human lives.

Jenn

[Little Star]

24. Wish I knew how.

The junk they make is labeled proudly. They food they send over here is not. Nice government we've got.

[Clark2008]

38. Where do you live?

It's next to impossible to make your house a China-free zone in the states. We can barely find ANY items - affordable or not - that aren't made in China: no jeans, no shirts, no furniture. I do buy American-made cars and TV sets, but they're not necessarily made in America (most of my car was probably assembled in Mexico).

I wish we had those trade rules here.

[Critters2]

71. I'm committed to buying nothing directly from China

This means I buy a lot of stuff from resale shops, and I do a lot of research. But the items are out there, if you look. Yes, a lot of the things I buy resale were originally made in China, but I'm not sending my money there. And, frankly, I just buy a lot less stuff, to avoid buying things made in China. It's been very liberating.

www.boycottmadeinchina.org

[kickysnana]

3. Doctor prescribed a brand new "gentler" laxative for my Aunt

We got it and I read the label and we called the doctor to ask what the difference between it and antifreeze was. All I could see was 2 letters difference. It is marketed for small children too. She didn't use it she said "she didn't want to drink antifreeze" even if the the doctor thought it was OK.

[MADem]

8. Geez, back in the day, the "gentle" method was PRUNES!!!

Are three enough? Are six too many? (to quote the old commercial!)

If you couldn't handle the prunes, you went to "Fletcher's Castoria!"

[SoCalDem]

9. She should try something called "Malt-Supex". The pediatrician

said it was safe for babies.. It's over the counter and not very costly too. or peaches :)

Lots of older people have "problems" because their doctors want them to eat bananas for potassium, but bananas are constipating.. as is rice..

sometimes just changing the diet can help..without dangerous meds.

[kickysnana]

10. Thanks. Problem was following a stroke. It is better now.

She needed the laxative at first and was transitioning at the time of the suspect prescription.

[formercia]

31. Be sure they're Chiquita Brand bananas

eat bananas for potassium is just more BFEE propaganda. Sure, bananas have potassium, but then so does any vegetable.
It was a marketing ploy for bananas from the git-go.

[Clark2008]

39. I'm not so sure about that.

After my first C-Section almost exactly 8 years ago, I had massive leg cramps when I'd get up with the baby in the middle of the night attributed by the lack of potassium post-op. Doctor said to try bananas before he prescribed prescription-strength potassium. It worked.

Granted, I ate about two or three before bedtime - and maybe I could have eaten three servings of some other fruit or vegetable, but it seemed to work.

(Note: I'm about to have another baby soon, and am already eating tons of bananas. LOL.)

[formercia]

59. If it works for you, ok

me, I would just bootleg some Potassium Chloride and cut out the middle man. This is a very inexpensive chemical and safe as long as it's not taken to excess.

http://www.diagnose-me.com/treat/T154575.html

Source
Although bananas have a popular reputation as a high-potassium food, potatoes contain twice as much potassium as bananas and some other vegetables even more. What the banana does have is the highest potassium-to-sodium ratio - 440:1.

All vegetables are sources of potassium; foods and herbs that are especially rich sources include green leafy vegetables, celery, lettuce, turnips, dandelion, mint leaves, cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, whole grains (oats, rye), oranges, dates, grapes, raisins, figs, apricots, peaches, sunflower seeds, nuts, dried fruits, bananas.

Processing and cooking leaches potassium out of foods. The human digestive tract is well-suited to processing high-potassium raw foods.

[tblue37]

45. I don't find bananas constipating! I eat one every morning to produce the absolute opposite effect.

It works almost immediately!

[BrotherBuzz]

90. Ounce for ounce, prunes deliver more patassium then bananas

"Eat prunes at night and wake up with that get up and go feeling"
'If 'ya want to be a regular guy, eat prunes"

:hide:

[no_hypocrisy]

17. Not after tomorrow. Prunes are going to be regulated as a nutritional supplement

by the FDA. You'll have to get a doctor's prescription to have access to them and their price will be $100/lb.

:sarcasm:

[SoCalDem]

19. Awww.. Geez.. a whole new crime will emerge (Plum Rustlers)

Can't you just see houses being busted..with room after room of plums laid out on drying mats :rofl:

Pssst.. hey Laaaaydee..over here. I got some primo prunes for ya... $5 each

[tblue37]

37. There is a new yogurt out--Activa--that helps with that problem.

I bought some by accident, thinking the small cup size was just what I wanted for my yogurt, because I have trouble finishing the larger cups. After getting "results" I wasn't looking for, I wondered what had caused it and tracked back my food intake over the previous 24 hours. (I had been suspecting mild food poisoning, though there was no nausea invovled.) I read the label on the yogurt, thinking maybe it was too old, since my grocery store often sells outdated stuff. As I read the label a light went on over my head: "Oh. This stuff is supposed to have that effect.

[WiseButAngrySara]

61. You are probably talking about PEG, or polyethylene glycol,

which is a polymer of ethylene glycol, but is a HUGE molecule (molecular weight of about 8000 compared to a M.W. of about 50 for ethylene glycol, or antifreeze) which acts osmotically on the GI tract. Many studies have proven it to be safe, and none of the articles that I googled mentioned contamination by ethylene glycol as a problem, but it is a possibility because PEG is made from antifreeze! It's likely that the concentrations of ethylene glycol are too dilute to even be measurable, and the toxicity of anti freeze is dose dependent. PEG is inert, and probably quite safe and effective, with minimal side effects. I would not purchase this or any other medication from China though!

[enki23]

73. big difference between propylene glycol and ethylene glycol

(or PEG, as mentioned above)

propylene glycol, chemically quite similar to ethylene glycol but with considerably different human and animal toxicity, is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and allowed to be used as a cosmetic, drug, and food additive also.

[xchrom]

4. the love of money is the root of all evil.

these are the kinds of things people do there -- and or here -- when acquiring wealth becomes paramount.

you build a society on ideals -- not money.

[Deja Q]

63. But money is an ideal.

:shrug:

[dave_p]

6. It's the same crap

... that every developed country went through at some point. Except they never had 10% annual economic growth to contend with. Nobody's ever had to police an economy like that. US taxpayers paid Halliburton subsidiary KBR millions to serve expired food to the troops; Spain's 1981 adulterated cooking-oil disaster killed 1000 and poisoned thousands more; intensive agriculture's a cesspit of disease everywhere. The answer's pressing China - and everyone else - to enforce decent standards and offering help where necessary, not hysterical xenophobia.

[Greyhound]

7. Absolutely nothing new. This is just SOP for the Chinese; I'm surprised it has taken this long

to show up here. Must be the result of arbusto's_® six year campaign to completely destroy government oversight.

[Blue_Tires]

77. +1

[rasputin1952]

11. Looks to me this is what "free" Capitalism spawn everytime...

The increase in profits over all else.

One of the discussions that the R's were SO proud of, was that pharmaceuticals in this country were or excellent quality and tested constantly by the FDA...the same FDA that is ruled by bushites, who are "free" marketeers.

OTC meds can be even more dangerous than previously thought of, many of them are imported, as are some of the compounds that go into Rx meds. This is what one gets when there is no regulation.

Pharmacists in this country go through some of the most rigorous training there is. Their ability to find drug interactions is phenomenal, and I have yet to meet one that would put compounds or Rx's together that would be potentially harmful. They recheck the MD's Rx against what is in the database, especially for individuals w/allergies, and warn physicians of possible side effects or conflicts in prescriptions.
This is one reason why each person should stick to one pharmacy, and if they change, need to insure that the new pharmacy gets the records from the previous one...and pt's need to let them know of any interactions/side effects!

When all one has is the desire to gain another dollar, whether through ignorance or deliberate action, they will find a way to do it, and the consequences of such an action are rarely heard by the source. How many might have died, become seriously disabled or even temporarily disabled by this tailor who thought he could make another yuan? How many more are out there like him operating in ignorance as to the consequences of their action?

I try very hard to keep a "China Free" home, it is tough but doable. The only way we can reasonably expect the Chinese gov't to take action is to keep profit away from them.

[SoCalDem]

12. I once saw a pharmacist scold a doctor because he could not read the Rx.

Made him repeat it over the phone and told the DR he was recording the call for their records :)

[rasputin1952]

15. Excellent!!! Pharmacists are the second level of pt protection

as far as meds go, then come nurses or others that may disburse medications. I've caught several questionable RX's and although I'm not a pharmacist by any means, I've called the pharmacy to double check before administering the med(s). In every case I was told to wait until the called the MD and double checked, about 5% came back as a change in orders, the other 95% there was no problem that could be discerned at the time.

One reason I did this is because one pt had 4 pharmacies and 9 Md's she was seeing. Add that to the hospital pharmacy and an incomplete medication record, and we were looking at potential disaster.

[tblue37]

44. I have to take a lot of different meds. When the doctor prescrbes

yet another med, I quiz her intensely about potential drug interactions. Then I go online and read up about potential interactions--and take notes. Then I go to my pharmacists (who know me well, since I take so many meds) and show them my list of meds and ask about potential interactions. It is the pharmacists' advice that I take ultimately, because I know they are more aware of the nuances of potential drug interactions that the doctors are. If my pharmacists are concerned, I go back to the doctor for a talk about alternatives.

A med student (of which my daughter is one) spends a fair amount of time studying drugs, but a pharmacy student spends all of his/her time studying drugs. They are the specialists in that field, not the doctors. I collate their concerns when adding a new med to my list.

[rasputin1952]

47. Excellent!!!! You are on the ball!...

There would be far fewer complications if everyone was as vigilant as you are...:D

I keep a list of meds and the pharmacy # in my wallet at all times...if I wind up in the hospital, there can be a list of meds, dosages, etc that is easily accessable. I've been to the ER in exceptional pain, and it is difficult to deal w/someone who is in pain, I'm no exception, I can give them the list and they can deal w/it. I also have on that list, prior surgies and diagnoses, why go through the list vocally, you forget stuff and really just want relief from the pain.

I was a Med Plt Sgt in the Army, and I told my people that unless it was contraindicated, stop the pain after you assure that the pt is isn't threatened by immediate death/coma. It takes bu a second to check a dogtag for allergies, and 2 more to administer morphine or demerol. Nothing like trying to immobize a fracture w/a pt in pain. make them comfortable, they will appeciate you forever, and you can get on w/the job w/o inflicting excrutiating pain.

[tblue37]

50. I don't know why I never thought about carrying my med list in my wallet!

Thanks for the idea. I am going to do that from now on!

[rasputin1952]

53. Cool.... it really does help in almost every medical situation...

Even if you have to call an ambulance, you can just hand it to them...if you go to the hospital, by the time you get there, they already have your history...:hi:

[leftchick]

13. I HATE these FDA qualifiers!!

<snip>

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.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned drug makers and suppliers in the United States "to be especially vigilant" in watching for diethylene glycol. The warning did not specifically mention China, and it said there was "no reason to believe" that glycerin in this country was tainted.

Even so, the agency called for all glycerin shipments to be tested for diethylene glycol, and said it was "exploring how supplies of glycerin become contaminated."

China is already being accused by U.S. authorities of exporting wheat gluten with an industrial chemical, melamine, that ended up in pet food and animal feed. The FDA recently banned imports of Chinese-made wheat gluten after it was linked to pet deaths in the United States.

Beyond Panama and China, toxic syrup has caused mass poisonings in Haiti, Bangladesh, Argentina, Nigeria, and twice in India.

<snip>

"NO REASON TO BELIEVE"????? omg....... :argh:

We Have EVERY Reason to be scared shitless especially with the fact that our FDA has proven pretty damn worthless these last few years!

[Cobalt Violet]

14. It's only a matter of time before we have a human mass poisoning in this country.

I mean on that they will have a hard time denying. The time bomb is ticking. Terrorists don't scare me but this stuff does.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

40. It already has happened.

It was the impetus for creating the FDA in the first place.

[Deja Q]

67. Right now, who is being affected the most?

The nationality of the people within plus their population, then ask how much of this is due to accident or design? This wouldn't be a precedent for a government doing its own form of population control. And as this is originating from China, they have tried more benevolent means of population control before, in the past; which failed.

I'm not exactly condoning what is going on; but it's as much a possibility as anything else.

[no_hypocrisy]

16. So this defective/toxic glycerin could be in any given number of OTC medicines

not yet manufactured and sold here?

OK. Let me get this straight. Not to confuse apples with oranges, but tomorrow, the FDA may severely restrict access to alternative medicinal, nutritional supplements b/c they aren't "tested" and approved by the FDA, and hence they may be "dangerous". But wholesalers who import from China, who don't have a chain of manufacturing/shipping, who don't test their products for safety, who sell toxic materials that will be incorporated into OTC medicine for unsuspecting consumers with compromised health can continue to do business with the blessing of the FDA.

Nutritional supplements: bad
OTC drugs with unknown Chinese ingredients: good

Friggin' Orwellian.

[tblue37]

41. What's "dangerous" is that the pharmaceutical companies

might be at risk of not squeezing the last drop of profit out of their victims, er, I mean customers.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. What's going on?

It's like the wild fucking West in China right now. Rules are either nonexistent or sporadically enforced, and it's easy to game the system by cheating.

[NewJeffCT]

21. Bingo!

I would say that it's more sporadically enforced than nonexistent, though. The rule enforcement is usually so lax that nobody bothers to follow the rules.

The only way it will be enforced is if somebody pissed off somebody in power. For example, if the guy Wang in the article did not give a cut to a local party boss (if demanded by the party boss) , the boss would likely come down on Wang with the full weight of the local police and the law.

[LuckyLib]

55. Exactly. China is growing so fast that what little infrastructure is developing cannot keep up.

The country is exploding with construction and production in every sector of human life. Controls over pollution, potential poison, and development are non-existent.

[leftchick]

20. SoCal this reads liks a freakin horror novel~

This is just frightening....

<snip>

A five-minute walk away, another manufacturer, the Taixing White Oil Factory, also advertises medical glycerin on the Internet, yet it, too, has no authorization to make it. The company's Web site says its products "have been exported to America, Australia and Italy."

Ding Xiang, who represents the White Oil Factory, denied that his company made pharmaceutical-grade glycerin, but he said chemical trading companies in Beijing often called, asking for it.

"They want us to mark the barrels glycerin," Ding said in late December. "I tell them we cannot do that."

Ding said he stopped answering calls from Beijing. "If this stuff is taken overseas and improperly used 1/2 hellip 3/4 ." He did not complete the thought.

In chemical country, product names are often not what they seem.

"The only two factories in Taixing that make glycerin don't even make glycerin," said Jiang Peng, who oversees inspections and investigations in the Taixing branch of the State Food and Drug Administration. "It is a different product."

[SoCalDem]

23. I KNOW.. I guess pets aren't enough.. But wait till kids start dying

ans since kidneys & livers filter (or try to) all these toxins, I am wondering about the uptick in kidney/liver disease...

i have a friend who just got hired as a dialysis tech..their company is building SEVEN new facilities.. They cannot keep up with the demand..

something's killing kidneys:(

[NashVegas]

25. The Rush to Corporate Capitalism Without Humanist Controls

In the long run, what's happening in China could be a good thing in that it may finally raise peoples' awareness.

[BlueCollar]

26. Ronald Reagan would have been proud

A country where people are able to make a profit free of "unneccesary government regulations"...

How many times have we heard that phrase as the Reepublican party works consistently to deny funding to our oversight agencies? How many times have I heard?

Funding cuts at FDA (We need to let pharma compete)
Funding cuts at OSHA (We ned to let big business compete)
Funding cuts at Agriculture (We need to let agriculture police themselves)

etc, etc

The list is long.

I'll bet they have tort reform to make a freeper wet in China too.

What really disturbs me is that our own Dems are taking so long to put this case before the public.

[Cass]

27. The right thing to do is to suspend imports from China until it is

proven they have cleaned up their system. Unfortunately, that will never happen. In the meantime, I am doing my best not to buy any Chinese products but its really difficult to do because we have no way of knowing that some ingredients/substances in a product are manufactured overseas and imported. We need good labeling laws with country of origin info in the worst way.

This article scared the crap out of me but I'm glad you posted it, SoCalDem. We all need to realize what we are dealing with. The pet food contamination appears to be only the tip of the iceberg.

[Nikki Stone1]

28. Food contamination, dead pets, lead in bibs, "resettling" Tibetans: so why are we going to Iran?

I mean we KNOW China has weapons of mass destruction and very specific designs on Taiwan. (1000 missiles or so pointed at the tiny island.)

Are we going to war to provide oil for our new overlords?

[Shallah Kali]

86. Lead in Vitamins & Lead in Honey as well -

Cleaning up China's honey
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chinahoney3may03,0,1358132,full.story

Some traders and sellers don't care about ensuring quality for the domestic market because prices are so low.

"The Chinese life is not valuable," Sun said. "All the food is like junk food."
---------
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660215681,00.html

Food safety is a bipartisan issue: Congress and the administration must work together and move aggressively to devise stricter standards. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, has deplored dangerous levels of lead in vitamin products originating in China


then there is the amount of our nation's debt they own - 2nd only to Japan - and the trade deficit because we buy so much more from them than they from us. We are shipping our nation's wealth over to China with Wal-Mart and their ilk getting a cut.

Buy local or at least national as much as possible. tell others why they need to as well. and badger congress to vote for Country of Origin labeling once again and hope enough vote for it that w. can veto it this time!

[1776Forever]

29. My God can it get any worse!!!!!!!

Where is the outrage in our Congress and Senate over this? I know Bushies could care less - but let's hope there is some true outrage at this from our Dem's!

I just posted this in other DU posts on the China debacles:

Another health risk to our people in the U.S. who have for years fought to have good quality products and safety for our citizens! We are outsourcing our very quality of life away! Let alone the future of our children! When will the idiots in Government wake up!! Just today New York Times reported on medication made in China that killed children in Panama! And the rich get richer while the country is pissed away!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06pois...

Read the following on the baby-bibs with dangerous lead levels sold at Wal-Mart company that outsourced there product manufacturing to China!

http://www.crowncrafts.com/about.html

Crown Crafts, Inc. Company Overview:

Crown Crafts, Inc., a Georgia corporation founded in 1957, operates indirectly through its subsidiaries in the Infant Products segment within the Consumer Products industry. In response to changing business conditions in the consumer products industry, the Company made significant changes in its business operations. In addition to a program of cost reductions and rationalization, the Company outsourced virtually all of its manufacturing to domestic and foreign contract manufacturers with the exception of the specialty hand wovens produced by Churchill Weavers. The Woven Products division, with manufacturing primarily in north Georgia, was sold on November 14, 2000 and net proceeds of $32.3 million were used to reduce debt. Following the outsourcing of adult bedding, the Roxboro, North Carolina plant was sold on June 14, 2001 and the proceeds of $8.0 million were used to reduce debt. Also, the Company made a decision to exit the Adult Bedding and Bath Business, and its net assets related to that business of $12.4 million were sold effective July 23, 2001. Proceeds of the sale were $8.5 million cash plus the assumption of liabilities of $3.4 million as well as the assumption of certain contingent liabilities. Cash from the sale was used to reduce debt. Following the sale of the Adult Bedding and Bath business, the Company is now primarily in the infant and juvenile products business.
:banghead:

[Doremus]

46. How's about some lead in your kid's lunchbox? CPSC says "Sure!"

This is part of an article on CNN.com that I clipped back in February. It's no longer on the site.

Lead-laden lunchboxes OK'd by government

AP) -- In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunchboxes, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe -- and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels.

But that's not what they told the public.

Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.

That data was not made public until The Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago.

(snip)

Almost every lunch box found with lead in the vinyl lining was made in China.

[conspirator]

30. Capitalism at its Peak! I have never trusted the drug industry or the processed food industry nt

[mcg]

32. Diethylene glycol from China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylene_glycol

" ... In Haiti in 1996, 85 children died through glycerine contaminated with diethylene glycol in a paracetamol syrup produced by Pharval Laboratories, a Haitian company, which did not use standard quality assurance procedures to verify the purity of the glycerine (which was supplied by a Dutch company, Vos, from a manufacturer in China, but the point of contamination with DEG was never determined).<3> ...
In October 2006 the CDC and the Ministry of Health of Panama detected toxic levels of diethylene glycol in a sugarless liquid expectorant during an investigation of 46 deaths from a syndrome characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms, renal failure and paralysis. Almost all the victims were hypertension and diabetes patients in their 40s to 80s. Criminal investigations are ongoing. <6> The source of the contamination was found to be the Taixing Glycerine Factory, a Chinese company in Hengxiang, China. Taixing Glycerine sold diethylene glycol falsely labelled as pharmaceutical grade glycerine, through the state-owned Chinese trading company CNSC Fortune Way, based in Beijing. A government agency in Panama purchased the falsely labelled product containing diethylene glycol and incorporated it into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine. <7>"

[Rosemary2205]

49. So the world knew about this at least as early as 1996?

Even if we outlaw imports from China, they'll just switch to importing via 3rd parties.

[cooolandrew]

33. It's always important to remeber the most exploitative American businesses moved to china, BUT..

China needs to do a big time catch up in regulations. Capitalism untamed will give China's growth a premature end.

[Annces]

34. I am looking at my processed food askance now

I don't think I will be buying the Stovetop stuffing for a while.

[blueworld]

35. Many excellent posts in this thread

We or our children could also already be ingesting God-knows-what from any number of Third World countries. For example, importing cut flowers sprayed & thoroughly soaked with pesticides banned in the US. We have agencies in the US (or we're supposed to have) that enforce minimum standards, otherwise greedy bazturds here would be doing the same as Wang.

Free trade is a euphemism for "exploit & acquire bloated profits". Nothing more. It isn't good for business if you're a thinking, caring human being or an American who believes in the ideals of this democracy.

Using slave labor, tainted raw materials, raping the land, ravaging the environment and poisoning children is not good for anyone's business.

While we fight this hydra, we should all be buying as much organic as possible, and locally made or grown as possible. Which ain't easy, but we have to try. No more chemical soups & frankenfood & superbugs.

Also we need REAL READABLE HONEST LABELING ON OUR PRODUCTS!

:banghead:

[mcg]

42. Yes, buying organic, local, unprocessed foods is a good idea.

I'm buying much more organic food now, I'm fortunate to have a large organic food store near where I live.

[mcg]

43. Directory of organic food stores, farmers markets, etc...

http://www.organicconsumers.org/purelink.html

[Critters2]

72. Find local growers at www.localharvest.org nt

[mcg]

75. nice site. nt

[Duppers]

87. YES, indeed it is!

thanks.

[morningglory]

36. They're Capitalists and Entre-Manures, that's what's going on, We have

learned from a couple of hundred years of Capitalism that these greedheads have to be watched and controlled. And they do not like us. Who would? I would much prefer our family farmers be supplying our food, with Monsanto being watched and controlled with an iron fist.

[Joanne98]

58. Bingo!

[illinoisprogressive]

48. I really want us to stop importing shit from china. it's too dangerous.

I don't care about prices. I don't care if I have to pay a buck more. I don't want my animals, my family or myself to die because someone wants to cut f***ing corners.

[Rosemary2205]

51. That won't make any difference at all.

the chinese raw products will simply be sent to some other country or a series of countries, slightly reprocessed and repacked each time and then imported to the US.

Our choices are no imports at all of food or medicine from anywhere, or to spend the money to inspect all the food and medicine coming into this country. Either choice will raise the price of food considerably.

[Shallah Kali]

88. Maybe then by keeping our money in America instead of sending it overseas everyone can afford it.

More made in America food and goods means more jobs for Americans. It also means less money in the hands of those who rule China letting their people die of unsafe food, horrifying levels of pollution, etc.

[Triana]

52. Our own FDA is underfunded and understaffed...

...we spent all our $ (and THEN some) in Iraq. bu$hit doesn't see this - contamination of our food - as a national security issue.

Can anyone else see the problem with these priorities. Is PROFIT all that matters in China AND in the US?

Guess so...

[lovuian]

68. FDA main goal is protect Corporations

they aren't doing anything but protecting Corporate backsides

they have been dragging their feet through this whole thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO8qJ_DcSIA

What I'm afraid is if it got into baby formula and pizza

if a country wanted to poison a country that would be the way

its intentional

[CK_John]

54. You have an environment where a billion people are going from absolute control to everyone can be

as rich as Bill Gates without any controls in less than 20 yrs. This is a formula for chaos and a neocon dream. Because the neocon underlying principle is chaos creates financial opportunity and the true leaders will get to the top rung. What happens in the mean time is just political noise.

[Deja Q]

64. True leaders? Or the most astute opportunists?

There are many forms of intelligence.

Morality and ethics are two codes that rein in opportunism. Unless you're born or grow up without factors to ensure those codes remain viable.

True leaders set by example. Would our leaders, such as Bill Gates, want us to do what he is doing? Hardly. He sets things up so you cannot escape. Leadership and dominant control are two separate, incontrovertible issues.

In theory.

[Gregorian]

56. We do it too.

When I was a child there was a tannery in Redwood City. I remember vividly the canal of red dye, and other things, that simply ran out the back into the SF bay. That bay, until recently, had phenomenon that very few people know about. I discovered it on my real estate journey. Old old men and women. Once you get close to someone's life, they tell you about things. And in real estate, they tell you about land. That bay had animals. I heard about the layer of seals that covered it. And the fields of flowers on the peninsula that looked like a quiltwork blanket. I saw the destruction in it's final phase. That's just the SF area.

The corporations are killing the planet. Indonesian workers. Look at that post on the new rulers of the world. I don't have it in front of me.

All I'm saying is your answer is right here. I've been repeating myself since I came to this forum. THIS is the reason I came to DU. Bush is just the CEO.

[earth mom]

70. I totally agree that the ALL corporations are killing the planet.

:grr:

[IntravenousDemilo]

57. Buy American (or in the case of Canada, Canadian)...

...and always look for the union label.

[bbgrunt]

60. sounds like he has taken the lesson of capitalism to heart.

[smalll]

62. What's going on? They're going through their Industrial Revolution

through their own 19th century. Very Dickensian.

[Deja Q]

65. With 10x the population of England (of the time), it's going to be very interesting times.

[lovuian]

66. Open Trade = Poison trade

they are poisoning the world for profits

thats what

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM6Gz2bB36c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6D8NsXLDpo

and the world is letting them get away with it


all for money

[earth mom]

69. With all the poisons they are shipping over here from China...

we don't need to worry about the "asian bird flu" since this kind of criminal behavior appears to be the next real killer of the U.S. population.

[SoCalDem]

74. Remarkable, isn;t it. They scare the bejeesus out of people over bird flu

and yet it's no biggie if drug companies "might' be using poison as part of their formula for cough medicines and who knows what else..and they just "think" it's ok.:eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

76. So...Industry Self-Regulation....How's that working out?

:shrug:

[valerief]

78. I wish there was a discount store chain named Not China instead

of the discount store chain named Wal-Mart.

[SoCalDem]

79. I remember when our walmart opened. there were US flags everywhere

and big signs all over. "MADE IN THE USA".
Maybe that was when the old man was still alive.. I don;t shop there, but every time my friend drags me there, I see nothing that's US made

[qdemn7]

82. SoCalDem that is a bad link

MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18518915/

Original NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison.html?th&emc=th

[Duppers]

89. thanks

I was going to post that, but ya beat me too it. :thumbsup:

:hi:

[qdemn7]

91. You are welcome n/t

[SoCalDem]

92. sheez. they must archive every day.. It worked last night.. Thanks :)

I printed the entire thing out and made my husband read it.. he was horrified..(he's the medicine-taker in this household)..

he's taking it to work this morning to give to the young Moms who work there ..

This is getting crazy..beyond belief..

[leftofthedial]

83. they don't give a shit

sadly typical capitalists

America has to offshore its middle class in order for our capitalist scum to compete with the likes of Wang.

[peacetalksforall]

93. Enforcement shrouded in secrecy by Dept Homeland Security?

Does anyone have ideas on the why this has to be secret? Perhaps because it's all phonied up to make this Dept look important? And there is no record of having done anything (because they had to divert more funds to pay for mercenaries.)

Post 84 by Duppers

"Equally worrisome, U.S. officials often lack the capability to trace foreign-produced food ingredients to their source of manufacture. In theory, the Bioterrorism Prevention Act of 2001 provides some measure of traceability. In practice, the act is ineffective and was not designed for this challenge. Its enforcement is also shrouded in secrecy by the Department of Homeland Security."

We can't even discuss what others are attempting to do to figure out what is going wrong and where without involving the Homeland Security and what THEY CAN"T DO to help the situation?

[Lisa]

94. the same sorts of things that were going on in W. Europe and N. America ...

... before we got consumer health and safety regulations in place. Uninformed or outright dishonest manufacturers putting all sorts of additives into foodstuffs to "stretch" them. I have been reading about food safety in the Victorian era, and the same kinds of stories are surfacing (chalk dust in milk to disguise its being watered down, etc.).