Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Friday, July 06, 2007
Chinese Food: What About The Children?
We flipped out when children might have seen Janet Jackson's nipple on tv, but yet again another product made in China has been contaminated, and the outcry isn't nearly as great.
A children's snack made in China has been recalled after 54 cases of
salmonella. Parents of a toddler who had violent
bloody diarrhea after eating this product have sued the company. Chinese products are continuing to be recalled, often after damage is done, but is this an effective strategy in dealing with the problem?
Dog and cat food, animal feed, apple juice concentrate, children's snacks, and baby bibs are being recalled as unsafe and we shake our heads and ignore the situation.
Some things like the engine coolant in the toothpaste were detected relatively quickly. The law of averages makes one safe in stating that there is some nasty things that we are putting in the mouths of our children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems that don't belong there.
Write your member of congress. Demand that the FDA actually give a damn about our food. This is not about xenophobia. I trust products made in Japan. I trust products made in Australia. We are being inundated with crap from China though where regulations seem to be in an Ayn Rand fantasy land at the moment.
Is Janet Jackson's nipple really more offensive than that?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
This Washington Post story ties in the quality control problems in China to the huge new market for generic drugs from India and China. Inspections from the FDA are nearly non existent, and the market is growing exponentially fast.
Here is where I am stumped. We can not import cheap drugs from Canada. The Bush administration says they can't be assured as being safe. The pharmaceutical industries profits have nothing to do with it. Yet at the same time, we are just hoping the Chinese manufacturers don't put fertilizer, or engine coolant in a growing number of generic medications. Maybe we should give them to our pets first to see if they are ok. No. Not really.
Unsafe isn't the only problem. No actual drug may be another. China is going through an unfettered capitalism phase. By this I mean, they have a lot of business people who are unencumbered by regulation so they may press some corn starch together and call it a blood pressure medication.
Let's let the market settle this one. Congress might revisit the Canadian drug issue on these grounds.
Oh, and most vitamins these days are being produced in China. Maybe there is some ground dehydrated tiger penis in the mix now for extra vitality. Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.
Friday, June 08, 2007
This story from China should sicken you. A brickworks held men hostage for over a year, working 20 hour shifts for no pay.
The worst human instincts never get truly stamped out.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
U.S. officials asked their Chinese counterparts to increase oversight of food and drug exports Thursday as the list of potentially deadly products reaching U.S. shores kept growing.
The problems don’t stop at pet food. For April, China was No. 1 in countries whose imports were stopped at the border by the Food and Drug Administration. The list includes filthy mushrooms, drug-laced frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives.
“There is a harsh reality here: When it comes to food, ‘Made in China’ is now a warning label in the United States,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who earlier this month exacted a promise from FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach and Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong that they would work toward a mutual agreement to improve inspections and the overall safety of food products and drugs traded between the two nations.
When asked Thursday if consumers could trust the safety of food imported from China, von Eschenbach told The AP: “This is one area where we have an ongoing opportunity for continuous improvement and that’s what we are going to pursue.”
In other words, no. Ongoing opportunity? This is our FDA commissioner spinning the fact that regulations are weak to be mild. Whatever isn't caught at the border, your family has an ongoing opportunity to be a guinea pig.
H/T Americablog.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
First our pets were poisoned,we then had lead laced baby bibs from China soon after, then toothpaste came over to Central America with an engine coolant chemical" but minty fresh tasting was exported, and now there is this.
WASHINGTON -- A frozen product labeled monkfish distributed in three states is being recalled after two Chicago area people became ill after eating it, the importer announced Thursday.
Hong Chang Corporation of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., said it is recalling the product labeled as monkfish because it may contain tetrodotoxin, a potent toxin.
While the frozen fish imported from China was labeled monkfish, the company said it is concerned that it may be pufferfish because this toxin is usually associated with certain types of pufferfish.
Our FDA sat on their hands during the pet poisoning until the story got too big. We are now checking to see if any of that poisoned toothpaste got into our supply, and then there is this. When is enough going to be enough?
I like foreign products. However the market in China right now is not strictly controlled, safety standards are a joke, and we are being harmed in the process. After all of these screw ups we should be having congressional testimony on the tv, advisory panels being formed, some plan in place to make sure the next toxic product that comes over doesn't kill a lot of people.
You get what you pay for people. Part of the reason things in China are so cheap is because of the lack of oversight. Yeah they have cheap wages, lack of safety guarantees for workers too. This thrills our corporations to no end, but it's not just our jobs that are being threatened by our lack of regulation and lack of desire to do anything about it, but it is our lives as well.
Yesterday, I linked to a BBC story about toothpaste from China being sent to central America being contaminated with a toxic component of engine coolant. Today, the BBC is reporting that the FDA is checking to see if it made it into our supply of toothpaste here.
It might save companies a few bucks in bulk to outsource this to China as well you know. China has some serious problems with safety, quality control and there doesn't seem to be the ability or will to do anything about it. Right now we are being used as lab rats. It's not just food items. What about our consumer goods, our clothing? It's ok though. Corporate profits are up, so we shouldn't worry our pretty little minds.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
China says it is investigating reports that toothpaste contaminated with a potentially lethal chemical had been exported to Central America.
Thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste have been confiscated in Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The toothpaste contains diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in engine coolants, authorities there say.
When those persnickety liberals suggest that free trade agreements need safety standards attached to them, this is the reason. We have already had thousands of dogs and cats poisoned this year. Now toothpaste has been contaminated. Perhaps we should make sure foods and household items are safe before we allow them into the country. Is that really too much to ask?
Thursday, March 01, 2007
In light of Russia's cooling relations with the United States and NATO, the Russian military leadership has begun to cultivate stronger defense ties with Asia. The head of Russia's General Staff, General Yury Baluyevsky will visit China from March 3 to 5, in preparation for a visit by the new defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, a month later. Both will discuss issues of military and political cooperation, including plans for a large-scale training exercise, Global Mission 2007, to be held in Chelyabinsk Region in June. Both President Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, will attend the exercise.
So plutocratic Russia and China are back together naturally. It's ironic. Even during the cold war, there were tensions between the two communist giants. Now the wall has fallen, yet the fear of George Bush has done something that a pithy quote from Karl Marx never could; make them best friends.
Let's review shall we. Osama is still free. The anthrax mailer is still free. The axis of evil thing seems like a big mistake. Europe doesn't trust us. Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega are running things in Latin America. Now Russia and China are doing joint military excercises in Russia! Good thing the grown-ups are in charge. Condi, what do you suggest we do now? You know the Russians. Any thoughts?
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