Bayh asks Bush, FDA to restrict Chinese food, medicine imports

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/17262474.htm

n addition, the Washington Post reported Sunday that the FDA had confiscated 107 contaminated food imports from China at U.S. ports last month and more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

Even though scientists have concluded that the risk to humans from the chickens fed the tainted feed is very low, Bayh told Bush that the episode illustrates how vulnerable U.S. consumers are “to potentially poisonous agents that may be intentionally delivered to American citizens.”

snip

Among the FDA “refusal reports” quoted by the Washington Post were juices and fruits rejected as “filthy,” prunes tinted with chemical dyes not approved for human consumption, frozen breaded shrimp preserved with nitrofuran, an antibacterial that can cause cancer, and swordfish rejected as “poisonous.”

snip

U.S. and Chinese officials are meeting this week in Washington to discuss trade frictions and other economic issues. China has come under increasing pressure in Congress over its trade and currency policies and intellectual property violations.

Tainted Chinese Imports Common
In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901273_pf.html

Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.

Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

Please write Congress demanding Country of Origin Labeling now. We deserve to have the choice of whether or not to play russian roulette with our families health by buying food from countries with little to no food safety laws and enforcement there of! Go here:
http://tinyurl.com/24lv2w

[Robbien]

1. The FDA responds by closing more offices and destroying

more of their libraries and laboratories.

Can't let a little bit of bad food get in the way of free trade.

[madrchsod]

2. ask bush? like he cares if anyone dies.

[grilled onions]

3. For The Sake Of Health....

..couldn't "we" destroy all unsafe foodstuffs at the point of entry? Knowing they will try and foist their unhealthy goods again and again??

[kestrel91316]

4. Bush to Bayh and consumers: GFY.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Hmm.

Was there a restriction of American food last year when American spinach killed several people?