Made in China

[Bowwowmeow]

First it was poisoned wheat gluten, then toothpaste. Apparently, its even more than that:
China Rejects U.S. Warning on Toothpaste

By ANITA CHANG (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
June 03, 2007 5:46 PM EDT

BEIJING - China called a U.S. warning to consumers to avoid Chinese toothpaste because it may contain a poisonous chemical "unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration increased its scrutiny of toothpaste made in China because of reports that the products may contain diethylene glycol, a thickening agent used in antifreeze and also as a low-cost - but frequently deadly - substitute for glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs.

In a statement posted on its Web site late Saturday, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said low levels of the chemical have been deemed safe for consumption.

The FDA was not aware of any poisoning but found toothpaste with the chemical in a shipment at the U.S. border and at two bargain retail stores, a Dollar Plus in Miami and a Todo A Peso in Puerto Rico.

China's main food safety regulator said in its statement that the ingredients of toothpaste exported to the U.S. is offered to the FDA, showing the amount of diethylene glycol. Also, the toothpaste's labeling has already been registered with the FDA, allowing it to be sold in the U.S, the statement said.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said experts from the Health Ministry had deemed diethylene glycol a "low-level" poison that does not accumulate in the body and found no evidence the substance caused cancer or deformities.

It also said European Union standards allow for a certain amount of the chemical and cited a 2000 Chinese study that found toothpaste containing less than 15.6 percent diethylene glycol was not harmful. The Chinese toothpaste the FDA is concerned about contains between 3 percent to 4 percent of the drug, according to the FDA.

"Therefore the warning issued by the FDA ... is unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory," the agency said.

The agency "requests the U.S. clarify the facts in a scientific manner as soon as possible and properly handle the issue."

The FDA alert Friday said the agency found diethylene glycol, or DEG, in three products manufactured by Goldcredit International Trading in China: Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint and Cooldent ICE.

The agency also found the chemical in one product manufactured by Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemical Co. Analysis of that product, Shir Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste, found it contained about 1 percent DEG.
Phones at both companies rang unanswered Sunday.

Companies that make brands previously found with DEG will have to prove the toothpaste is free of the chemical before it's allowed into the U.S., the FDA said. Meanwhile, all other brands of Chinese-made toothpaste will be stopped for testing, something the FDA has been doing since May 23.
A slew of Chinese exports have recently been banned or turned away by U.S. inspectors including, wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine that has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America, monkfish that turned out to be toxic pufferfish, drug-laced frozen eel, and juice made with unsafe color additives.

DEG was blamed for the deaths of 51 people in Panama after they took tainted cold medicine. China has admitted it was the source of the deadly chemical but insists it was originally labeled as for industrial use only.
Officials in Panama and several other Latin American countries have removed tens of thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste from stores amid concerns that they contain DEG.
Chinese officials may be more than happy to consume small amounts of antifreeze in their toothpaste. I want the right to know what's in my toothpaste, and reject it if I don't want antifreeze in it. The fact that China doesn't think its problematic is of no concern to me.

[Charmagne]

Why are the Chinese trying to kill us and our animal companions?:rollingpin:

[Oracl]

:eek: :grumble:

[1vegan]

Why are the Chinese trying to kill us and our animal companions?:rollingpin:

I guess money and ignorance, it's not just China.

CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/05/31/melamine-recall.html)

U.S. feed producer added melamine, faces recalls

Two brands of feed made in the U.S. are being recalled after a manufacturer said it had intentionally used melamine and other chemical compounds as an additive, U.S. officials say.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said the fish and shrimp feeds AquaBond and Aqua-Tec II were being recalled. The livestock feed Xtra-bond is also being withdrawn.

The products were made by Ohio-based Tembec BTLSR, a division of the Canadian company Tembec Inc., and were also used in Uniscope feed.

"The companies have confirmed that Tembec added melamine as part of the formulation of the products to improve the binding properties of pelleted feed," the FDA said in a release.

The recalled feed also contained a urea formaldehyde resin, officials said.

Use of melamine as an additive was thought to be limited to China, where it was used to falsely boost protein levels. Imported wheat flour spiked with melamine was used to make pet food and fish feed in North America, prompting extensive recalls.

imho, that's what you (can) get if you put profit above other things.
In countries where there is not much freedom of speech, you can get things like that.

I don't know how to say it exactly, but for me a lot of things have turned into "organisations" who mainly focus on the industry part of what they are doing.

Food industry is one of them, just like the medical industry, it (no longer) seems to be about what you do, but how industrial/quick/cheap you can do it :(

[Bowwowmeow]

Why are the Chinese trying to kill us and our animal companions?:rollingpin:
Its possible that, if the Chinese have always ingested these things, they have developed a resistance through natural selection, and therefore don't think there is anything wrong with consuming trace amounts of various toxins. And, since money is the goal, they don't understand why this is upsetting American consumers.

I'm sad to see that they don't display much regard for the health of their own people, if they don't have a problem putting antifreeze in toothpaste, or mislabelling poisonous fish, so I guess its a stretch to expect them to care about anyone else.

[thevegantwins]

My eyes must be tired. I just read BWM's post as, since monkey is the goal. :dizzy:

[dreamer]

I've read that the VAST majority of recalls (consumer safety and food recalls) have come from China in the past few years. They have had problems with their food supply even in their own people--many have died from food poisoning and the like--because of how polluted much of their agricultural land and water is. They also don't have much in the way of guidelines for product/food safety--including having few (if any) "banned" substances. Unfortunately, much of our food is now being shipped in from China because it is cheaper than American versions (when American versions even exist). I wish our governments would wake up and see the true dangers beyond direct terrorist action!

[I've been getting recall emails from the Consumer Product Safety Commission--so NOT about food but rather products such as toys and kitchen appliances--and the majority of the products originated in China that have been recalled!]

[Bowwowmeow]

Tainted Foods Are Daily Problem in Asia

By MARGIE MASON (AP Medical Writer)
From Associated Press
June 16, 2007 8:39 PM EDT

HANOI, Vietnam - As Nguyen Van Ninh needles his chopsticks through a steaming bowl of Vietnam's famous noodle soup, he knows it could be spiked with formaldehyde. But the thought of slurping up the same chemical used to preserve corpses isn't enough to deter him.

"I think if we don't see those chemicals being put in the food with our own eyes, then we can just smack our lips and pretend that there are no chemicals in the food," he said, devouring a 30-cent bowl of "pho" on a busy Hanoi sidewalk. "Why worry about it?"

While the discovery of tainted imports from China has shocked Westerners, food safety has long been a problem in much of Asia, where enforcement is lax and food poisoning deaths are not unusual. Hot weather, lack of refrigeration and demand for cheap street food drives vendors and producers to find inexpensive - and often dangerous - ways to preserve their products.

What's exported, for the most part, is the good stuff. Companies know they must meet certain standards if they want to make money. But in the domestic market, substandard items and adulterated foods abound, including items rejected for export.

Formaldehyde, for instance, has long been used to lengthen the shelf life of rice noodles and tofu in some Asian countries, even though it can cause liver, nerve and kidney damage. The chemical, often used in embalming, was found a few years ago in seven of 10 pho noodle factories in Hanoi.
Borax, found in everything from detergent to Fiberglas, is also commonly used to preserve fish and meats in Indonesia and elsewhere. Farmers in various countries often spray produce with banned pesticides, such as DDT.

"The people who do this want to make money. And if they're stupid and greedy, this is a bad combination," said Gerald Moy, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization in Geneva. "It's the wild West."

The quality of Asian food has come under harsh scrutiny after toxic substances were discovered in several Chinese exports.

Wheat gluten tainted with the industrial chemical melamine has been blamed for killing or sickening thousands of dogs and cats in North America. Fish containing pufferfish toxins, drug-laced frozen eel and juice spiked with harmful dyes were among other unsafe products shipped to the U.S.

Diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting thickening agent also used in antifreeze, has been blamed for the deaths of at least 51 people in Panama after the chemical was imported from China and mixed into cough syrup and other medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has halted all shipments of Chinese toothpaste to test for the same chemical reportedly found in tubes sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama.

The problems in Asia are not limited to China. Ice cream and sweets made with the same industrial dyes used for coloring garments have been found outside schools, and farmers have been caught dipping fruits in herbicide, to add shine, a day before going to market.

In India, pesticides often taint groundwater and produce. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been dueling with a New Delhi environmental group, which alleged it found unacceptable levels of pesticides in soft drinks.

Street food is another problem. Millions grab everything from chicken kebabs to rice porridge from unregulated food stalls where hygiene is often poor. Unsafe preservatives are sometimes added, and vendors typically use the cheapest oils and ingredients.

But the food is hot, cheap and tasty - a combination that often overrides safety concerns in countries where many still live on $2 a day.
"Asking for food quality would be a luxury," said Alex Hillebrand, chemical and food safety adviser at WHO's regional office in New Delhi. "They're hungry people."

Some countries, such as Thailand, are trying to improve domestic food safety. In bustling Bangkok, where pots bubble and woks sizzle at makeshift kitchens pitched on sidewalks, markets are issued test kits that can detect up to 22 contaminants.

No one knows the extent of chemical-laced food in Asia or how it will affect public health.

"It might be that you consume it today, but you don't see any effects for 10 years," said Peter Sousa Hoejskov, a food quality and safety officer at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Thailand. "Some foods have issues that are developing over a long, long time and others you have an immediate reaction."

China has faced outrage among its own citizens in recent years. Whiskey laced with methanol, a toxic wood alcohol, was blamed for killing at least 11 people in southern Guangzhou. Local media in Shanghai uncovered the sale of phony tofu made from gypsum, paint and starch.

At least a dozen Chinese babies died and more than 200 were sickened with symptoms associated with malnutrition after drinking infant formula made of sugar and starch with few nutrients. In another case, lard for human consumption was made with hog slop, sewage, pesticides and recycled industrial oil.

Some Vietnamese have been so shaken by news of tainted Chinese foods, they are changing their eating habits. They are avoiding Chinese-made products and paying more - up to $2 a bowl - for pho at an air-conditioned chain restaurant with signs promising no formaldehyde or borax.

"I am very, very worried about it," said Duong Thuy Quynh, 31, who was eating beef pho because she was also worried about bird flu in chicken. "I'm ready to pay more to protect myself and my family."

[Oracl]

In another case, lard for human consumption was made with hog slop, sewage, pesticides and recycled industrial oil.
:eek: :blecch:

[my3labs]

Wow. That's some really scary stuff.

[Charmagne]

I was just curious and was sitting at the computer and started looking around at where some things in my room came from - and I can't believe the crap that is made in China! Is there no other place the US buys from? My comforter, lamp on my desk, all kinds of other "stuff" - all from China. I'm going to start reading every label before I buy ANYTHING else!!:(

[Gliondrach]

I bought a low energy bulb a few weeks ago. The first ones I saw were made in China. I wouldn't buy them. I was about to walk out of the shop when I saw some others further along the shelf that were made in Hungary. Same wattage and same price. So I bought them.

[Oracl]

I can't believe the crap that is made in China! Is there no other place the US buys from?
It's very similar here in Oz I'm afraid. :(

[1vegan]

Is there no other place the US buys from? My comforter, lamp on my desk, all kinds of other "stuff" - all from China. I'm going to start reading every label before I buy ANYTHING else!!:(

A lot of U.S and European companies work with China for their low wages.

That started even before they started with outsourcing tech support to foreign countries.

It's very hard to buy something that didn't have it's components based in "asia", but it's good for the shareholders (profit)......
A lot of "old school" values have been replaced by the universal new value ... $$$ :rollingpin:

[1vegan]

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=3288850&page=1)

Consumer Groups Say China Beginning to Manufacture More Counterfeit Drugs

Counterfeit Drugs Particularly Dangerous

It's not just toothpaste. In Cook County, Ill., the sheriff's department confiscated 600 bottles of counterfeit Head and Shoulders shampoo containing a harmful bacteria linked to feces.

Drug manufacturers lose $32 billion a year to counterfeit medications, and patients can be left sick or injured.

Kevin Fagan's son, Tim, was prescribed a critical medication after a liver transplant. Every time he took the medicine, Tim cried out in pain. Eventually, the Fagans found out the drug was fraudulent.

"What happened to my son was unconscionable," Kevin Fagan said. "His arms, his legs, his entire body was just racked in pain and my wife and I were absolutely frantic with worry."

Safety advocates say the FDA doesn't conduct enough inspections of foreign plants where medications are made.

Now new countries like China, which is known for counterfeiting, are getting into the drug business. Statistics show China was the source of 81 percent of the phony goods seized at U.S. ports last year.

"The CPSC [Consumer Product Safety Commission] looks for hazardous products across the board, and as of right now, 60 percent of the products recalled in the last fiscal year have been from China," Julie Vallese, a senior spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said.

imho, that's what you get if you have dollars as the highest possible value in your life.
And a lot of "executives" only look at the bottom line....... how much bucks can we make.

We seem to live in world where "being some one" is mostly judged on how much cash one has, not for what you do or what you (truely) are.
(see paris hilton, britney spears, not much comment on the enron scandal, etc, etc)

[thevegantwins]

June 19, 2007
As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China
By ERIC S. LIPTON and DAVID BARBOZA
WASHINGTON, June 18 — China manufactured every one of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, a record that is causing alarm among consumer advocates, parents and regulators.

The latest recall, announced last week, involves 1.5 million Thomas & Friends trains and rail components — about 4 percent of all those sold in the United States over the last two years by RC2 Corporation of Oak Brook, Ill. The toys were coated at a factory in China with lead paint, which can damage brain cells, especially in children.

Just in the last month, a ghoulish fake eyeball toy made in China was recalled after it was found to be filled with kerosene. Sets of toy drums and a toy bear were also recalled because of lead paint, and an infant wrist rattle was recalled because of a choking hazard.

Over all, the number of products made in China that are being recalled in the United States by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has doubled in the last five years, driving the total number of recalls in the country to 467 last year, an annual record.

It also means that China today is responsible for about 60 percent of all product recalls, compared with 36 percent in 2000.

Much of the rise in China’s ranking on the recall list has to do with its corresponding surge as the world’s toy chest: toys made in China make up 70 to 80 percent of the toys sold in the country, according to the Toy Industry Association.

Combined with the recent scares in the United States of Chinese-made pet food, and globally of Chinese-made pharmaceuticals and toothpaste, the string of toy recalls is inspiring new demands for stepped-up enforcement of safety by United States regulators and importers, as well as by the government and industry in China.

“These are items that children are supposed to be playing with,” said Prescott Carlson, co-founder of a Web site called the Imperfect Parent, which includes a section that tracks recalls of toys and other baby products. “It should be at a point where companies in the United States that are importing these items are held liable.”

The toy trains and railroad pieces are made directly for RC2 at plants it oversees in China, presumably giving it some control over the quality and safety of the toys made there. Staci Rubinstein, a spokeswoman for RC2, declined on Monday to comment on safety control measures at company plants in China.

The Toy Industry Association, which represents most American toy companies and importers, also declined to comment.

Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the agency recognizes that more must be done to prevent the importation of hazardous toys and other products from China. “It is a big concern. And the agency is taking steps to try to address that as quickly as possible,” Ms. Vallese said. “Their businesses will suffer if they don’t meet safety standards.”

Scott J. Wolfson, a second Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman, would not say how long ago RC2 discovered the problem or when it first reported it to federal authorities.

In the last two years, the staff of the consumer product commission has been cut by more than 10 percent, leaving fewer regulators to monitor the safety of the growing flood of imports.

Some consumer advocates say that such staff cuts under the Bush administration have made the commission a lax regulator. The commission, for example, acknowledged in a recent budget document that “because of resource limitations,” it was planning next year to curtail its efforts aimed at preventing children from drowning in swimming pools and bathtubs.

The toy industry in the United States is largely self-policed. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has safety standards, but it has only about 100 field investigators and compliance personnel nationwide to conduct inspections at ports, warehouses and stores of $22 billion worth of toys and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of other consumer products sold in the country each year. “They don’t have the staff that they need to try to get ahead of this problem,” said Janell Mayo Duncan, senior counsel at the Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports. “They need more money and resources to do more checks.”

Most recalls are done voluntarily, as was the case with Thomas & Friends, after companies discover problems or receive complaints.

Among the toy recalls, the problem is most acute with low-price, no-brand-name toys that are often sold at dollar stores and other deep discounters, which are manufactured and sent to the United States often without the involvement of major American toy importers. Last year, China also was the source of 81 percent of the counterfeit goods seized by Customs officials at ports of entry in the United States — products that typically are not made according to the standards on the labels they are copying.

At one of the RC2 factories in Dongguan, China, on Sunday, a pair of workers who were paid about $150 a month to spray paint on mostly metal toy trains six days a week said they did not know whether the paint they used contained lead. The factory produces metal toys as well as the wooden toys listed in the Thomas recall.

“We’re just doing the painting,” says Li Hong, a 22-year-old factory worker who was sitting out in front of the factory dormitories.

Exactly who operates the factories making the Thomas & Friends trains in Dongguan is unclear. While the zone is run by a group of Chinese or Hong Kong suppliers, it also houses an office building that bears the RC2 corporate logo.

China’s own government auditing agency reported last month that 20 percent of the toys made and sold in China had safety hazards such as small parts that could be swallowed or sharp edges that could cut a child, according to a report in China Daily. Officials in China, of course, are fighting back, insisting that its food and other exports are safe and valuable, that new regulations are being put into place and that problem goods account for a tiny portion of all exports.

The Toy Industry Association urges its members to routinely test products it is importing to make sure they comply with federal safety standards, which prohibit, for example, surface paint that contains lead in toys or items that could cause a choking hazard.

Other major retailers or toy industry companies hit by recalls for products made in China this year include Easy-Bake Ovens, made by Hasbro, which could trap children’s fingers in the oven and burn them, and Target stores, which the consumer product commission said was importing and selling Anima Bamboo collection games, some of which were coated with lead paint.

The 22 models of the Thomas & Friends toys that are being recalled include some of the most popular items in the line’s collection, such as the red James engine and the fire brigade truck. The toy line, based on the children’s book and television series, has an almost fanatical following among some families, who own dozens of models, which can cost $6.50 to $70 each.

The string of lead paint cases has drawn the most attention from consumer watchdogs and parenting advice columnists.

“Do I have to look at every toy that has paint on it that comes from China as perhaps suspect?” said Mr. Carlson, of Imperfect Parent.

Ms. Duncan, of Consumers Union, urged parents to sign up for the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s automated notification system at the commission’s Web site (www.cpsc.gov), so they can stay on top of which toys are being recalled.

Ms. Vallese, the spokeswoman for the product safety commission, said the agency’s acting chairwoman, Nancy A. Nord, went to China in May for a meeting with her counterparts there, focusing in particular on toys, lighters, electronics and fireworks.

“Is there a concern that there are more products coming in from China and making sure they live up to the standards we expect?” Ms. Vallese said. “Yes, there is, and we understand our authority and obligation and we will make sure we enforce it.”

But parents shopping at for toys in New York over the weekend said the whole episode left them uneasy.

“I think it’s terrible,” said Chris Gunster, 41, while perusing the Thomas & Friends display area in Toys “R” Us at Times Square with his wife and 4-year-old son, James, a big fan of the toy trains. “Lead paint in this day and age?”

Eric S. Lipton reported from Washington and David Barboza from Dongguan, China.

This is disturbing:

Just in the last month, a ghoulish fake eyeball toy made in China was recalled after it was found to be filled with kerosene. Sets of toy drums and a toy bear were also recalled because of lead paint, and an infant wrist rattle was recalled because of a choking hazard.

This is unbelievably high, It also means that China today is responsible for about 60 percent of all product recalls, compared with 36 percent in 2000.
One would think inspectors would look at Chinese imports more closely but it doesn't appear so.

[Bowwowmeow]

Hopefully with all these recalls and more media attention China will realize that they need to just do things right if they want to participate in the global economy. Not that the rest of the world's nations are squeaky clean. But China's worse than most, it seems.

[Gliondrach]

It would seem that China is more of a danger to US citizens than Iraq ever was. I doubt if Bush will be bombing China.

[dreamer]

No way...big business/the corporate world LOVES China since they can get things made dirt cheap and don't have to worry about environmental restraints. And since Bush is in bed with big business, he'd never do anything to squealch that deal:no:

[Gliondrach]

The odd nuclear weapon might be the decider.

[Bowwowmeow]

You read my mind.

[1vegan]

Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003764001_tires27.html)

Tire recall signals latest problem with Chinese products

In the latest controversy involving Chinese products, federal regulators are asking a New Jersey company to recall up to 450,000 imported tires after an accident that killed two people last year.

Foreign Tire Sales "needs to come up with some sort of remedy, a recall notice and proper compensation to the consumer," said Heather Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The importer conceded the tires are prone to tread separation and should be pulled off the road. But a formal recall would force the tiny company to give consumers replacement tires. The cost could easily reach $50 million, and drive Foreign Tire into bankruptcy, said Lawrence Levigne, the company's attorney.

The tires, intended for use on pickups, sport-utility vehicles and other light trucks, were sold in the U.S. as far back as 2001 under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS. They were made by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. of Hangzhou, China.

But it seems china is "waking up"

China says it shut 180 food factories

BEIJING -- China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said today.

The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown in December that also uncovered the use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.

Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. "These are not isolated cases."

[1vegan]

USA today (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-06-29-china-fish-reax_N.htm)

Chinese say U.S. fish ban is unfair

BEIJING — Chinese officials and exporters say the USA's new import restrictions on five types of farm-raised Chinese fish are unfair and will increase costs for seafood firms in both countries.

The USA should distinguish between Chinese exporters who meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards and those that fail them, said Wei Shouzhu, vice general manager of Yongyan Aquatic Food Group in Mingguang, Anhui province. "It is unfair to detain shipments from companies like ours, which have never had any shipments rejected by the FDA."

The FDA announced Thursday that all imports of the affected fish will be detained until the shipments are proven to be free of residue from antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs not approved in the USA for use in farm-raised aquatic animals. Some Chinese farms use the drugs to keep the fish healthy, but the FDA is concerned about possible harmful effects on humans after years of consumption. FDA officials said they took the action after months of testing imported Chinese fish.

The farm-raised fish covered by the FDA's detention order are catfish, basa (a type of catfish), shrimp, dace and eel.

The import restrictions will "cost our company a huge amount," said Wei. "We don't fear the extra inspections at U.S. ports, as we have full confidence in our fish quality, but I worry about the time the inspections will take, as the costs of storage at US ports are very high," Wei said.

there's more on the site I linked to, it's partly interesting, I didn't know there was so much "fish farming"

[Gliondrach]

They've started farming cod in the Shetland Islands. It was thought to be impossible. They have to do it because they have nearly finished off the wild ones.

[dreamer]

The headline sounded promising, but when you look at what was actually said, it sounds really horrible:

Paulson: U.S. on guard against tainted Chinese goods
By Glenn Somerville
10 minutes ago



U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday defended Bush administration efforts to protect consumers from unsafe products from China and said close economic ties between the two countries were vital.

During a wide-ranging interview with Reuters in which he said the beleaguered U.S. housing market was bottoming out, Paulson conceded that American attitudes toward China had soured over what some U.S. interests see as unfair trade tactics and worry about tainted food and other products.

"The perception of China in the U.S. has been on the negative side for some time because many in the U.S. are unhappy with the risks they see and some of the negatives they see in globalization," Paulson said.

Concerns over the safety of Chinese products entering the United States have climbed after a series of recalls and product bans on items as varied as children's toys to seafood and toothpaste, leading one lawmaker to call for an "import czar" to oversee import safety.

But Paulson said such a step was unnecessary.

"I frankly don't see the hole. I think it's being dealt with and I'm not sure that the answer to everything is creating another government position," he said.

CHINA AN OPPORTUNITY

Paulson, the administration's chief economic official, has made pursuit of Chinese currency and other reforms a signature issue since taking over Treasury nearly a year ago.

Where many Americans see threats posed by the Asian giant's growing economic might, Paulson sees opportunity.

"The fact that they're the world's fastest growing economy is something that some people (see) as a problem. I look at that as an opportunity that I'd like to capture," he said, adding China was the fastest growing market for U.S.-made goods and services.

Paulson said he remains unhappy with the slow pace at which China's currency is rising in value -- a major irritant for U.S. businesses who claim they cannot compete with cheap Chinese imports -- but he warned that alone won't cure a trade deficit with China that hit a record $233 billion last year.

He said Washington also was pressing Beijing to open its markets more fully to U.S. goods and to financial services, an area where American firms have special expertise.

On other issues, Paulson indicated Washington has no intention of challenging a tradition in which Europe will pick a new leader for the International Monetary Fund to succeed Rodrigo Rato, who has said he will leave in the fall.

"We are very much in the listening mode and I want to see an outstanding leader," Paulson said. "I'm just going to be encouraging my counterparties around the world to select candidates that are going to be leaders of real stature that will be highly regarded in capitals around the world."

SHARPEN IMF ROLE

The United States has been in the forefront of countries pressing the IMF to sharpen its role in monitoring currency practices around the globe -- another way to pressure China, now the world's fourth largest economy and still booming, to let its yuan rise.

On the home front, Paulson said the U.S. economy remains healthy, notwithstanding problems in subprime mortgage markets, some of which he attributed to a lowering of standards during a long period of prosperity and low interest rates.

"Borrowers need to be wary of the risks they're taking on in times of low interest rates, particularly if they haven't fixed their rates. Lenders need to be wary," he said. A downturn in housing markets, which has brought selling prices down, is "at or near the bottom," he added.

But Paulson, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. who emphasized he closely monitors financial conditions, said that outside woes in the subprime sector, financial markets look sound and solid.

"Markets are volatile," he said. "I haven't seen a single thing that surprises me -- it's hard to surprise me."

(additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Emily Kaiser)



Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

[Bowwowmeow]

But Paulson said such a step was unnecessary.

"I frankly don't see the hole. I think it's being dealt with and I'm not sure that the answer to everything is creating another government position," he said.


You see what happens when someone eats way too many mislabeled Chinese pufferfish and brushes his teeth with antifreeze? ;) :whistle:

[1vegan]

"The fact that they're the world's fastest growing economy is something that some people (see) as a problem. I look at that as an opportunity that I'd like to capture," he said, adding China was the fastest growing market for U.S.-made goods and services.

translation : there's money to be made there, let's get a piece of the cash, and don't worry about regulations too much ;)

"power to the corporations" :(

[Gliondrach]

The Glorious Gloucestors.

[Bowwowmeow]

Kids' Snacks in China Fail Standards

By ANITA CHANG (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
July 03, 2007 2:57 AM EDT

BEIJING - Chinese inspectors found dozens of children's snacks that failed food standards and seized hundreds of bottles of fake human blood protein from hospitals, officials said Tuesday.

China's dismal health and safety record - both within and outside its borders - has increasingly come under the spotlight as its goods make their way to global markets. Major buyers like the United States, Japan, and the European Union have pushed Beijing to improve inspections.

Inspectors in southwest China's Guangxi region found excessive additives and preservatives in nearly 40 percent of 100 children's snacks sampled during the second quarter of 2007, according to a report on China's central government Web site.

The snacks - including soft drinks, candied fruits, gelatin desserts and some types of crackers - were taken from 70 supermarkets, department stores and wholesale markets in seven cities in the region, it said.

Only 35 percent of gelatin desserts sampled met food standards, the report said, while two types of candied fruit contained 63 times the permitted amount of artificial sweetener.

The report did not say whether any snacks were recalled or if any manufacturers faced discipline. Calls to the Guangxi Industrial and Commercial bureau rang unanswered Tuesday.

Some 420 bottles of fake blood protein, albumin, were found at hospitals in Hubei province but none had been used to treat patients, Liu Jinai, an official with the inspection division of the provincial food and drug administration, said in a telephone interview. No deaths or illnesses were reported.

A shortage of albumin triggered a nationwide investigation in March into whether fakes were being sold.

A state media report last month centered on an inquiry in the northeastern province of Jilin, where 59 hospitals and pharmacies sold more than 2,000 bottles of counterfeit blood protein. One person died from use of the fakes, state media said.

Albumin is a primary protein in human plasma that is important in maintaining blood volume. It is used to treat conditions including shock, burns, liver failure and pancreatitis, and is needed by patients undergoing heart surgery.

Chinese authorities have struggled with recalls following the widespread sale of fake polio vaccines, vitamins and baby formula. Such incidents threaten both public health and faith in the government's ability to control crime and corruption and ensure safety of food and drug supplies.

In May, the country's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Fears that China's chronic food safety problems were going global surfaced earlier this year with the deaths of dogs and cats in North America blamed on Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine.

U.S. authorities have also turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with leaded paint. Chinese-made toothpaste has also been banned by numerous countries in North and South America and Asia for containing diethylene glycol, or DEG, a toxic ingredient more commonly found in antifreeze.

Beijing has striven to appear active in cleaning up problem areas. Inspectors recently announced they had closed 180 food factories in China in the first half of this year and seized tons of candy, pickles, crackers and seafood tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax.

[Gliondrach]

Officials in Peking need to get their fingers out. Or are they profiting from this?

[Bowwowmeow]

Out of what? :wigglebutt:

[1vegan]

Officials in Peking need to get their fingers out. Or are they profiting from this?

I suppose in some way they do, I've read that government officials sometimes do have shares in such companies, and there is bribery too, like that official who was sentenced to death some time ago.

[Gliondrach]

Out of what? :wigglebutt:

The till?

[dreamer]

I was watching a news program this week that discussed the China safety issue. They said that in China, local governors have more power than the central gov't when it come to regulatory action, so making "federal" laws often does nothing to the local level. The local officials might be "crooked"--have stock or are paid off--and then the food products get shipped to a central processor that may combine it with similar products from all over the country. They mentioned apple juice might have apples from dozens of provinces, so they can't track down where the "tainted" apples came from in such a situation.

[1vegan]

LA times (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-booty4jul04,1,6631822.story?coll=la-headlines-business)

Seasoning on snacks found tainted with salmonella
From the Associated Press
July 4, 2007

WASHINGTON — A seasoning made with imported Chinese ingredients used on recalled snack foods was contaminated with salmonella, a company executive said Tuesday. The snack foods sickened dozens of people.

The seasoning, used on Super Veggie Tings Crunchy Corn Sticks and Veggie Booty snack foods, tested positive for the bacteria, said Robert Ehrlich, chief executive of Robert's American Gourmet Food Inc. The "veggie" seasoning's ingredients came primarily from China, the company said.

Also Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture said it found a strain of the bacteria called salmonella Wandsworth in a Veggie Booty sample. The rare strain matched the genetic fingerprint of the type that made consumers ill in multiple states, Minnesota officials said in a release.

The Sea Cliff, N.Y., company recalled its Veggie Booty last week after it was associated with 54 cases of salmonella poisoning in 17 states. Many of those infected reported eating Veggie Booty.

The company expanded the recall Monday to include Super Veggie Tings Crunchy Corn Sticks because it used the same seasoning.

The recall is only the latest in a growing list to involve Chinese-made products found to be tainted, defective or otherwise dangerous. In recent weeks, there have been recalls of Chinese tires, toy trains and toothpaste.

So China is messing with tings ?! :rollingpin: :tantrum:

[Bowwowmeow]

The death toll in Panama from the tainted drugs is still on the rise, too.

[Bowwowmeow]

China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Chief

By ANITA CHANG (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
July 10, 2007 12:48 PM EDT


BEIJING - China executed a former director of its food and drug agency Tuesday for approving fake medicine in exchange for cash, illustrating how serious Beijing is about tackling product safety, while officials announced steps to safeguard food at next summer's Olympic Games.

The measures include ensuring athletes' food is free of substances that could trigger a positive result in tests for banned performance-enhancing drugs. Many of China's recent food woes have been tied to the purity of ingredients, flavoring, artificial colors and other additives.

During Zheng Xiaoyu's tenure as head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1997 to 2006, the agency approved six untested drugs that turned out to be fake, and some drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, according to state media reports.

"The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems," agency spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said at a news conference Tuesday highlighting efforts to improve China's track record on food and drug safety.

Next year's Beijing Olympics, a great source of pride for China, also has been targeted in the crackdown on unsafe food. Sun Wenxu, an official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, told reporters that athletes, coaches, officials and others can be assured of safe meals.

"All the procedures involving Olympic food, including production, processing, packaging, storing and transporting will be closely monitored," Sun said.
Food and drug agency spokeswoman Yan acknowledged the agency's supervision remains unsatisfactory and that it has been slow to tackle the problem.

"China is a developing country and our supervision of food and drugs started quite late and our foundation for this work is weak, so we are not optimistic about the current food and drug safety situation," she said.

Fears abroad over Chinese-made drugs were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol - a thickening agent used in antifreeze - imported from China. It was passed off as harmless glycerin.

Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol has been banned in North and South America and Asia, though there have been no reports of health problems stemming from the product. China has no guideline banning the chemical in toothpaste, and the government says it is harmless in small amounts.

In the United States and Canada, pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine has been blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats. Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.

The list of food scares within China over the past year includes drug-tainted fish, industrial dye used to color egg yolks red and pork tainted with a banned feed additive.

Zheng's death sentence was unusually severe even for China, which is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined, and indicates the communist leadership's determination to confront the country's dire product safety record.

Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking cash and gifts worth $832,000 when he was in charge of the food and drug agency.

He was sentenced to death on May 29 and his appeal was rejected on June 12 by the Higher People's Court of Beijing. China's Supreme Court approved the sentence, saying Zheng "committed vile crimes and caused extreme harm to society."

"Although he confessed to some of the crimes of bribe-taking and returned some of the illegal income, it was not enough for leniency," the court said.
Zheng's execution Tuesday morning was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.

"We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure food and drug safety, which is what we are doing now and what we will do in the future," Yan said.

Cao Wenzhuang, a former director of the food and drug agency's drug registration department, was sentenced to death last week for accepting bribes and dereliction of duty. He was given a two-year reprieve, which usually means he can get life in prison if deemed to have reformed.

Yan said the food and drug agency was working to tighten its safety procedures and create a more transparent operating environment. The administration has announced a series of measures to tighten safety controls and closed factories where illegal chemicals or other problems were found.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine posted on its Web site Monday the names of 13 companies that have been banned from exporting after their products were found to be substandard.

The products included rice cakes, cooked mushrooms, preserved pears and several kinds of seafood bound for Europe, Japan and North America. Problems included evasion of inspection and quarantine, as well as excessive bacteria and sulfur dioxide in the food or the presence of banned drugs.

Meanwhile, authorities promised to investigate water purity after a newspaper reported that more than half of the water coolers in Beijing use counterfeit branded water.

The Beijing Times reported that water jugs are filled with either tap water or purified water from small suppliers and sealed with bogus quality standard marks.

The report said the practice is widespread because water from major suppliers can cost twice as much as water from other sources.

Wu Jianping, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, noted that a May inspection of Beijing's drinking water products found more than 96 percent were safe.

"Problems found with some individual cases cannot be interpreted to mean that the entire water industry has problems," Wu said.

[Gliondrach]

I would say that the execution illustrates how cheaply the Peking posse hold human life and how willing they are to slaughter their own people. Their real purpose was to be seen to be doing something. They don't realise that in other countries we won't applaud such barbarous behaviour. There is never justification for killing someone who is no longer a danger. I wonder how many of the Peking lot accept bribes?

[Bowwowmeow]

I guess I'm a little sheltered when it comes to the way the world operates, but I am pretty surprised that there is any country left who will execute a person for a crime that doesn't involve the death of a victim or victims. Unless maybe people have died as a result of his corruption, and we haven't heard about it.

[1vegan]

*post nr. 8

China has faced outrage among its own citizens in recent years. Whiskey laced with methanol, a toxic wood alcohol, was blamed for killing at least 11 people in southern Guangzhou. Local media in Shanghai uncovered the sale of phony tofu made from gypsum, paint and starch.

At least a dozen Chinese babies died and more than 200 were sickened with symptoms associated with malnutrition after drinking infant formula made of sugar and starch with few nutrients. In another case, lard for human consumption was made with hog slop, sewage, pesticides and recycled industrial oil.

[Bowwowmeow]

But the man is being executed for approving fake medicine for money, and I hadn't heard whether people had died because either the fake medicine was poisonous, or because it didn't do what it was supposed to do, and people needed it to keep from dying, like insulin or something.

[1vegan]

Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/2007/07/12/china-cardboard-buns-face-markets-cx_vk_0712autofacescan01.html)

Yum! Cardboard-Stuffed Buns

HONG KONG -

Amid a steep rise in pork prices this year, one small purveyor of pork buns in Beijing found a way to keep prices down and sales high — substitute cardboard.

Here’s its recipe for xiaolongbao, a popular breakfast item, as captured by a television reporter with a hidden camera:

First, soak used cardboard with water and caustic soda, a poisonous chemical, until its color fades and its texture became tender. Then stir six cups of cardboard broth with two cups of lard or pork fat, one cup of dried soymilk sheet and one cup of leeks. Finally, stuff the cardboard mixture in a dough wrapper and steam until done.

Tips provided by the maker: Adding lard to the cardboard makes it taste more like pork, while mixing in dried soymilk sheet make the buns chewier.

"It may save me almost 1,000 yuan ($131.50) a day," the owner of the dim-sum booth told a reporter from Beijing TV Channel 7 who posed as a customer.

Following the airing of the story, authorities on Thursday closed the dim-sum booth, located in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. The owner fled and is wanted by the police for questioning.

The buns were prepared at a kitchen in nearby Taiyanggong Village. It was unclear how long the booth was serving the cardboard-filled dumplings, but a worker in the prep-kitchen told the TV reporter that it was a popular recipe known across the country due to the rapid rise of pork prices, which has pinched the wallets of ordinary Chinese. (See: " Pricey Pork Strains China")

The average wholesale price of the meat staple in Beijing hit a five-year high in the second quarter of 2007 at 14.06 yuan ($1.80) per kilogram, up 14.7% over the first quarter of 2007 and 66.2% year-on-year, according to a report released by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture on July 8.

Nationwide, the price of fresh boneless pork hit 19.6 yuan ($2.6) per kilogram in June, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

After the incident, Chaoyang District's Industrial and Commercial Administration said it would soon inspect the district's 58 dim-sum sellers and warned citizens not to eat food from small booths or mobile sellers.

Widespread food-safety problems have been the subject of a constant drumbeat of reports in local and foreign media this year. To restore confidence, the government announced last month that it had shut down 180 factories and revoked 37 processing licenses of food makers for using dangerous chemicals during the six months from December to May.

I wonder what it will take to make changes in China?

[Gliondrach]

A proper government. Or at least, a competent one.

[Charmagne]

Oh my God - it must be a really horrible place for the poor people of China to live. :(

[Charmagne]

BEIJING, China (CNN)

Chinese food inspectors have banned meat products from seven U.S. companies from being imported into their country after finding a range of contamination issues in shipments checked on Saturday, according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/16/china.meat/art.testing.ap.jpg
Food inspectors carry out tests on products in Beijing.


The suspension of meat imports from the American companies -- including Tyson Foods -- comes just weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would hold all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel shipments arriving from China until they are tested for residues from drugs not approved by the U.S. for use in farm-raised fish.

Xinhua quoted the head of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine calling the FDA action "unacceptable," and warning that "China, too, detects many substandard food products from the U.S."

It was not immediately clear if China's ban extended to all products from the seven companies or just those specific products on a list published on the agency's Web site that it said were found on Saturday to contain salmonella, feed additives and veterinary drugs.

In addition to Tyson Foods, the companies on the list include Sanderson Farms, Intervision Foods, AJC International, Cargill Meat Solutions, Van Luin Foods USA and "Thumph Foods," which Xinhua said most likely is Missouri-based Triumph Foods.

While the suspension period for the latter three companies is specified to be 45 days, the length of suspension was not given for the first four on the list, Xinhua said.

The products the Chinese agency said were found to be tainted include frozen chicken from Tyson, frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, frozen pork from AJC International, frozen pork breast bone from Cargill, frozen pig ears from Van Luin Foods, frozen chicken feet from Intervision and salted pig intestines from Triumph.

It was also not immediately known how much of those products are normally imported into China from the U.S.

[Charmagne]

Thank you.:)

I hope they never import another animal product. Hopefully that will be less murdered.:(

Oh but they'll probably just eat more cats and dogs then.

[Bowwowmeow]

I went ahead and copied the article, Charmagne, and removed the link.

How does anyone suppose that a chicken who spends her life trampling on her own feces is going to have untainted feet. Some people really will eat anything.

[dreamer]

Maybe our lawmakers will get something done...as if:rolleyes:

Food Imports Don't Get Enough Oversight by U.S., Lawmakers Say
Justin Blum
2 hours, 15 minutes ago



July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't have enough staff to protect Americans from tainted food imports, lawmakers and congressional investigators said.

The FDA inspects less than 1 percent of imported food and takes samples of only a fraction of those products, said Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of a House panel holding a food-safety hearing today in Washington. The FDA plans to close seven of 13 labs that inspect food as well as other imports, posing new dangers, he said.

The FDA is under criticism from lawmakers who say the agency didn't do enough to protect the public from contaminated spinach last year and tainted peanut butter and pet food this year. The agency also was slow to react to contaminated seafood from China being shipped to the U.S., they said.

``FDA's food-safety program is woefully understaffed,'' said Stupak, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. ``Entry reviewers, investigators and compliance officers simply cannot keep up with the flood of imported food.''

The FDA shouldn't go forward with plans to consolidate labs, said David Nelson, an investigator with the Energy and Commerce Committee, during the hearing. The agency hasn't provided proof that the closures would save money, he said.

In San Francisco, four reviewers oversee thousands of shipments of products regulated by the FDA every day, according to a report by committee investigators released at the hearing. In a typical day, an FDA reviewer examines one entering line of food and other products every 30 seconds, the report said.

`Fragmented, Understaffed'

``The Federal food-safety system is in dire need of reform: It is fragmented, understaffed, inefficient, and lagging in state-of-the-art tracking systems,'' said John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan and chairman of the Energy and Commerce panel, at the hearing. ``FDA has largely abdicated its regulatory role to the food industry itself, which is expected to police itself.''

The FDA has ``done a great deal'' to protect the U.S. food supply from contamination, said Andrew von Eschenbach, the agency's commissioner, in prepared testimony. The FDA is working to develop new strategies designed to bolster the country's food safety system, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net




Copyright © 2007 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.

[dreamer]

Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/2007/07/12/china-cardboard-buns-face-markets-cx_vk_0712autofacescan01.html)



I wonder what it will take to make changes in China?
The reporter was just arrested for making this story about cardboard in the buns up.

Reporter held for fake cardboard-in-buns story
Thu Jul 19, 9:42 AM ET



Beijing police have detained a television reporter for fabricating an investigative story about steamed buns stuffed with cardboard at a time when China's food safety is under intense international scrutiny.

A report directed by Beijing TV and played on state-run national broadcaster China Central Television last Thursday said an unlicensed snack vendor in eastern Beijing was selling steamed dumplings stuffed with cardboard soaked in caustic soda and seasoned with pork flavoring.

Beijing authorities said investigations had found that an employee surnamed Zi had fabricated the report to garner "higher audience ratings," the China Daily said Thursday.

"Zi had provided all the cardboard and asked the vendor to soak it. It's all cheating," the paper quoted a government notice as saying.

A city-wide inspection of steamed bun vendors in the wake of the report had found no such cases, the paper said.

Beijing TV had apologized for failing to check the report's authenticity and said it would make efforts to improve staff ethics, the paper added.

China is reeling from a series of tainted food and drug scandals that have sparked criticism at home and abroad.

The deaths of patients in Panama from mislabeled drug ingredients from China, deadly toxins in pet food exported to the United States and food laced with hazardous antibiotics and chemicals have raised fears about the safety of China's surging exports.

Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to improve food safety in a meeting with a visiting Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, Kyodo news agency reported.




Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

[1vegan]

yep, I read that it was a hoax here too :o

Seems you have to be even more carefull about believing what "the media" reports than I already thought :o

[1vegan]

www.newsinferno.com/archives/1659

Ginger Laced with Pesticides Recalled: China’s Latest Potentially Deadly Export
Date Published: Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

Fresh ginger laced with pesticides is the latest Chinese import to face a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recall. The tainted ginger was discovered by California inspectors over the weekend, and on Monday, the state issued a warning against eating the product imported from China. The FDA ordered the recall after it was discovered that the ginger had been shipped to stores in California, Michigan, Oregon, Louisiana and Washington.

California health officials found potentially harmful levels of the pesticide aldicarb sulfoxide in fresh ginger from China that was distributed by the Christopher Ranch food company in Gilroy, California. The ginger was sent to stores in boxes labeled to show it came from China, but there is a chance that it was placed in store produce bins without labels. For this reason, California authorities are warning people not to eat any fresh ginger unless they can be certain it did not come from China.

When ingested in small amounts, aldicarb sulfoxide causes nausea, headache and blurred vision for about six hours. However, if large amounts are consumed, the pesticide can also cause diarrhea, sweating, muscle stiffness, breathing difficulties and even death.

Last year, the US imported 32,000 tons of ginger, almost half of it from China. Those imports have been a problem before. In the past several months, port inspectors in Seattle have turned away several Chinese ginger shipments because they were tainted with pesticides.

[Gliondrach]

I think it will be safer to boycott everything that comes from there. Probably the only way to ensure that your food is safe is to grow it yourself - or at least, as much as possible.

[thevegantwins]

It would be best to boycott Chinese products but if you look around, that's all that's available in many circumstances. Walmart & Target would be put out of business. :yea:

[Bowwowmeow]

Its not entirely fair that China is getting scrutiny over this. Produce from South America is sprayed with DDT, but no one's making a fuss about that.

I've just seen a headline about the the suicide of the man who exported all those lead-painted toys. I really don't understand this reaction. If he knew it was wrong, why did he do it? Why didn't he commit suicide for even thinking about doing it, if actually doing it merits suicide as well. Why didn't he just not do it? I am so confused. :confused: Its not like anyone's going to think better about him just because he killed himself. He'd get more admiration from facing up to it and preventing others from doing it in the future. I know the Japanese had a suicide tradition, but I wasn't aware of a Chinese one.

[Gliondrach]

Was it suicide or murder?

[Bowwowmeow]

The headline said suicide. I didn't read the article, though.

[dreamer]

They were talking about this suicide on the news b4 I came to work, but I didn't really listen to it completely. I think they said that it was common for "disgraced" officials to kill themselves in China. I'm not sure it's as much the action that caused the negative outcome, but that it becomes public and thus shames not only that person, but the person's family as well.

[Gliondrach]

I am stirring it. But it could be true. Either one.

[Bowwowmeow]

I'm not sure it's as much the action that caused the negative outcome, but that it becomes public and thus shames not only that person, but the person's family as well.
How shallow that is, not to care about the horrible things you do to hurt other people as long no one finds out.

[Charmagne]

Maybe he did it because he felt his death was inevitable - they did kill the one that tainted some of the exports.

[Bowwowmeow]

China Claims U.S. Soybeans Tainted

By AUDRA ANG (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
August 22, 2007 4:53 PM EDT

BEIJING - China, on the defensive over the safety of its products, lashed out Wednesday at the U.S. by claiming its soybean exports contained pesticides, poisonous weeds and dirt and blaming American manufacturer Mattel Inc. in part for lead tainting that prompted the recall of millions of toys.

China is facing a global backlash following discoveries of high levels of chemicals and toxins in a range of Chinese exports from toothpaste and seafood to pet food ingredients and toys. Beijing has tried to defend its safety record and reassure consumers by highlighting similar problems in other countries.
"Numerous quality problems" have been found with American soybeans, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a notice posted Wednesday on its Web site.

"We've already made exchanges with the United States, demanded an investigation into the cause, and asked that effective measures be taken to improve the situation to avoid similar incidents from happening again," the Chinese watchdog agency said.

One batch of beans in February was found to contain red beans and pesticides that constituted a "great potential hazard to the food safety of Chinese consumers," it said.

Soybeans, which are mainly crushed for oil and used as animal feed, are the biggest single U.S. farm export to China, according to the American Soybean Association. China has bought billions of dollars worth since the current market year began in September.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it had not received any official complaints from China about contaminated soybeans.

"If any of our trading partners has a concern, the normal process with USDA requires that an official notification be made, and none has been raised here," said Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.

He added that the problems over the batch of red beans had been resolved in February.

The accusations against the U.S. come as a growing number of countries are rejecting or recalling Chinese exports.

In the latest development, a distributor announced a recall in Australia and New Zealand of Chinese-made blankets found to contain high levels of formaldehyde, a potentially cancer-causing chemical preservative that gives a permanent press effect to clothes.

Earlier this month, El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel recalled 19 million Chinese-made items including dolls, cars and action figures. Some were contaminated with lead paint. Others had small magnets that children might swallow.

Two weeks before that announcement, 967,000 Chinese-made plastic preschool toys from Mattel's Fisher-Price unit were recalled because of possible lead-paint hazards.

In an interview published Wednesday, Li Zhuoming, executive vice chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Toy Industry Association, said both Chinese manufacturers and American toy giant Mattel are both responsible for the recalls.

Blame "cannot be pushed to either side," said Li, whose government-backed association is in the southern province of Guangdong, the center of China's vast toy export manufacturing industry.

The region's exporters stand to lose billions of dollars from canceled orders if consumer confidence continues to decline. Sesame Street, Barbie and Polly Pocket products made in the province were among those recalled.

"The producers are responsible because they do not have tight controls over purchasing and production," Li was quoted as saying in the state-run Guangzhou Daily newspaper. "But the buyer Mattel cannot evade responsibility."

Mattel said Wednesday it was trying to improve its product safeguards.
"Safety of children is of the utmost importance to Mattel. We have been working around the clock to improve our system and have already instituted changes in our required procedures," the company said in a statement.

"This includes the launch of an improved three point check system, part of which is testing of every production run of finished toys to ensure compliance."
But Li said Mattel neglected to "do its job well in quality inspections." He did not give any details or say how the producers did not follow standards.
Li said profit margins in China's toy industry are low and "it's hard to make money" because of the cost of labor and materials. He warned foreign companies run the risk of getting shoddy products if they demand too low a price from Chinese manufacturers.

"If you give a high price for purchasing, the factories will use high quality raw materials to produce. But if the price is low, they can only use inferior raw materials," said Li.

U.S. safety officials have said no injuries had been reported from any of the products and the broad scope of the recalls was intended to prevent potential problems.

:rofl: Its all starting to resemble the bickering of five-year-olds! :beanie: :nahnah: :shakehead:

I have to say that not bothering to clean out dirt, weeds, and pesticides (like China doesn't use them too?) from a soybean shipment is a completely different ethical proposition from deliberately adding a fatal poison like melamine to a food product in order to give false protein readings, or adding antifreeze to toothpaste, or selling people medications that have been deliberately tampered with, or using lead in children's toys, or . . . . . :rolleyes:

At least the dirt and weeds can be seen and cleaned out. Its not like they are deliberately adding them to the shipment because no one will no they are there, and selling people dirt and weeds will increase the profits for the people who sell them. I'm sure there is some sort of tare that accounts for a certain percentage of unwanted material in a crop that gets factored into the price paid. The same can't be said for people who think they are buying eel corpses, and get poisonous blowfish corpses instead.

Not that I feel sorry for people who eat dead animals getting something that will hurt them. If you don't want to be poisoned by eating one kind of corpse, the safest thing is to stop eating them altogether. But at least we aren't trying to sell the Chinese a shipment of nothing but weeds and dirt, and claiming they are actually soybeans!

[1vegan]

In the Netherlands they had a recall of china made child matresses.

It's not fully sure to me if there was a problem with the matresses, or that the containter they had been shipped in was (too heavily) gassed so the matresses contained pesticides that shouldn't have been in there.

[Bowwowmeow]

They're at it again.

China Bans Exports of Drug-Tainted Toy

From Associated Press
November 09, 2007 11:16 PM EST

BEIJING - China's government has suspended exports of toys covered with a toxic chemical that have been subject to recalls from Australia to the United States after sickening children, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

China's move came as seven more U.S. children were reported ailing after ingesting Chinese-made toy beads because of the toxic chemical coating, bringing the total of U.S. children sickened to nine, according to a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The Chinese government's quality control administration issued the export ban, sealed the toys at the sites where they were produced and ordered an investigation, Xinhua said in a brief report.

Millions of units of the popular toys, which are sold as Aqua Dots in the United States and as Bindeez in Australia, were recalled in those countries as well as in Britain, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere this past week after children began falling sick from swallowing the toy's bead-like parts.

Tests showed they were coated with the industrial chemical 1,4-butanediol. When ingested the chemical metabolizes into the "date-rape" drug gamma hydroxy butyrate, and may cause breathing problems, loss of consciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death. In addition to the nine in the U.S., three children in Australia have taken sick.

The new reports of the sickened U.S. children, six of whom were hospitalized, came from at least five states: Texas, Delaware, New Hampshire, Illinois and Utah, said CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese.
The agency recalled the Aqua Dots toy Wednesday after two children were hospitalized after eating the beads.

The U.S. recall covers 4.2 million of the Aqua Dots toys, which consist of colored beads that can be arranged into designs and then fused together when sprayed with water.

The agency received its first report of a sickened child Monday and ordered stores to pull the toy two days later, Vallese said.

For China, the recall is the latest in a slew of product quality scandals that has tarnished the image of the country as an exporter of reliable goods. The government has tried to shore up China's reputation by increasing inspections, selectively punishing companies and launching a publicity campaign to boost quality.

Few details were available about the latest export suspension and how a popular toy became coated with a toxic chemical. The toys' maker, Australia-based Moose Enterprises, has said the product was manufactured in China. But neither the company nor the Chinese government have identified the factory or factories where the toys were produced.

Reached by telephone Saturday, a duty officer at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which issued the ban, said officials were not available to comment.

In its report, Xinhua said inspectors "sealed the bead toys at the producer" whose name was not released.

Companies worldwide have increasingly outsourced manufacturing, often choosing Chinese factories for their cost and quality. But heated competition among factories and the rising cost of labor, land and fuel have sometimes put pressure on profits, causing some producers to cut corners.
In the latest case, the Aqua Dots or Bindeez were supposed to have been coated with nontoxic 1,5-pentanediol, a chemical commonly used in computer printer ink. But that chemical generally sells for three or four times the price of the toxic compound found on the tainted toys, 1,4-butanediol.

There's a guest from China lurking right now.
I HOPE YOU'RE FUCKING ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES! :mad: :biff:

Boycott the 2008 Olympics! :order:

[Oracl]

Boycott the 2008 Olympics! :order:
I'll go along with that. :mad:

[Gliondrach]

I won't be going to Peking next year. That'll teach 'em.

[thevegantwins]

I don't think I mentioned this yet but as of about 6 months ago, Mr. TVT and I NO LONGER PURCHASE TOYS (and try not to purchase anything) MADE IN CHINA!

[1vegan]

I don't think I mentioned this yet but as of about 6 months ago, Mr. TVT and I NO LONGER PURCHASE TOYS (and try not to purchase anything) MADE IN CHINA!

It's hard to really boycott things made in china, but it's good that you try.

I suppose it sort of makes it impossible to buy just about any regular/common toy?

[thevegantwins]

I suppose it sort of makes it impossible to buy just about any regular/common toy?

Very hard but fortunately, we don't buy toys too often. I found some blocks for Ben from Germany and a tea set for Sarah from Germany but finding train sets and cars, something both kids really love, has been particularly difficult. I basically stopped shopping at the huge chain store, Target, because all their crap is from China. Also, no 99 cent stores because all that crap is from China as well. I shop alot at thrift stores because older items tend to be non-China origin.

[Gliondrach]

I try to avoid Chinese goods. It will be very difficult to do so if I want to buy any electronic things. I put off buying a new shirt for over a year because the only ones I liked were made there. I bought three new ones last week. Made somewhere else.

[Oracl]

I won't be going to Peking next year. That'll teach 'em.
We can not go together! ;) :)

[Gliondrach]

Good idea. Multiple bookings are usually cheaper.

[thevegantwins]

Grrrrr. We bought our new coffeepot at the Bodum store in NYC. Bodum is a Swiss company and I just assumed after spending $70 that it was Swiss-made but after we got home, Mr. TVT noticed the :laughingdevil:Made in China:laughingdevil: sticker on the bottom of the pot. Seriously, if we had known that, we wouldn't have bought it. :tantrum:

[Gliondrach]

Typical Commie trick.

[VeganD]

I would also try to do this but i have electric items which i believe are all made in china and anytime i want to upgrade something what can you do

Its something you cant really get away from for example if you want to buy a computer upgrade part that’s going to mean buying something that has been made in china 9 times out of 10 everything is made there

I hate the way they treat animals and probably 95% are scum bags with a few vegetarian and maybe some vegans there

Gliondrach

We all love animals here that’s why we are vegan but i guess it comes back to that thing where do you draw the line i really admire you for not buying any new shirts for a year or so, but what when someone is in need of some shoes or some other clothing do they walk around with holes in their shoes or buy a pair that is made in china that is the question

I do try to avoid products that are made in china but i don’t think it can be done when you want to buy something electronic, I mean if i were in the market for a new TV and i want say a sony and one was made in china and the other one was made in say germany i would then buy that one but its rare to find things that are not made there

[Gliondrach]

If someone really needs new clothes and the only ones they can find were made in China they will have to buy them.

[thevegantwins]

I went to a smallish supermarket chain, Trader Joe's, last night for our monthly shopping. I usually buy around 10-15 lbs of frozen organic spinach and broccoli. They didn't have any in the freezer last night so I asked a manager. He said Trader Joe's is phasing out all Chinese products and are currently looking for growers that are not in China to provide the organic spinach and broccoli. They had non-organic that wasn't from China but I didn't want non-organic. I always wondered about the quality of TJ's organic broccoli since I don't trust China to be truthful about whether something is organic or not. While it is a great inconvenience to not have easy access to organic veg, I'm quite glad that Trader Joe's is switching growers. I hope all stores follow suit though evil :shiftydvil: Walmart never will. :no:

[Bowwowmeow]

Viagra Ingredient in Chinese Supplements

By The Associated Press
From Associated Press
December 29, 2007 8:20 AM EST

WASHINGTON - Dietary supplements marketed to provide male sexual enhancement contain undeclared erectile dysfunction drugs putting users at risk, the Food and Drug Administration warned Friday.

The agency advised consumers to stay away from Shangai Chaojimengnan supplements sold under the names Super Shangai, Strong Testis, Shangai Ultra, Shangai Ultra X, Lady Shangai and Shangai Regular. The Chinese-made supplements are packaged and distributed by Shangai Distributor Inc. of Puerto Rico.

Product testing indicates that some of these so-called supplements contain Viagra's active ingredient, sildenafil, or a compound with a chemical structure that mimics sildenafil.

These chemicals could interact with nitrates in drugs taken for disorders commonly associated with erectile dysfunction, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease. The result could dangerously lower a user's blood pressure, according to the FDA.

The agency also warned that the safety and purity of these illegal ingredients is unknown.