If Dog Food Wasn't Enough. . .

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Krill
The thing is it's that this sort of callousness is typical not of a communist mindset (though it may be Communists may be evil ****ers) but of capitalists'.

I think you might need to bone up on your history specifically the condition of the enviroment in the Eastern Bloc at the during the period of commie rule.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Krill
The thing is it's that this sort of callousness is typical not of a communist mindset (though it may be Communists may be evil ****ers) but of capitalists'.

[DinoDoc]

First pet food, then catfish, now toothpaste? Is any product from China safe?

[chequita guevara]

don't put anything from china in your body

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I think you might need to bone up on your history specifically the condition of the enviroment in the Eastern Bloc at the during the period of commie rule.

The Eastern Bloc was in a desperate race to re-industrialize so that they could meet the military threat imposed by the West. In any event, the West was pretty polluted too 100 years ago.

[Jon Miller]

how do you tell if your medicine comes from china?

JM

[chequita guevara]

i imagine that you don't buy from overseas, except from Canada. one of the few good things about the American health care system is that as we are a captive market, all our pharmaceuticals come from trusted sources.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
don't put anything from china in your body

That seems to be the way the wind is blowing. One wonders the situation in the domestic market, if this is what they ship to the international scene. There was also a situation with tainted medicine from China showing up in Panama IIRC.

[Dinner]

NPR had a report yesterday about fake anti-malaria drugs from China which were useless. Since this is a long standing problem in China several countries have started testing Chinese medical imports and the counterfeiters have responded by putting tiny amounts of the active ingredients in their fake meds. This is a huge problem because it isn't enough to stop malaria infects but it is enough to make malaria immune to the medications thus it is helping to create new hyper resistant strains of malaria.

[DaShi]

Not to worry. China has solved the problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/world/asia/30china.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

May 30, 2007
Ex-Chief of China Food and Drug Unit Sentenced to Death for Graft
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI, May 29 — The former director of China’s top food and drug safety agency was sentenced to death on Tuesday after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes, the state-controlled news media reported.

Zheng Xiaoyu was the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from its founding in 1998 until mid-2005, when he was removed from his post. He was detained in February in a government investigation of the agency, which is supposed to be China’s food and drug watchdog. Two other top agency officials have also been detained.

Mr. Zheng, 62, received the unusually harsh sentence amid heightened concern about the quality and safety of China’s food and drug system after several scandals involving tainted food and phony drugs.

China is also under mounting pressure to overhaul its food export controls after two Chinese companies were accused this year of shipping contaminated pet food ingredients to the United States, setting off one of the largest pet food recalls in United States history.

China’s regulators are also coming under scrutiny after diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical sometimes used in antifreeze, ended up in cough syrup and toothpaste in Latin America. In Panama, more than 100 people died last year after consuming cough medicine laced with diethylene glycol, which was shipped from China mislabeled as a harmless syrup.

The incidents pose a huge threat to China’s growing food and drug exports and have already led to international calls for new testing and screening methods for Chinese-made goods.

The problems are more serious in China because tens of thousands of people are sickened or killed every year as a result of rampant counterfeiting of drugs, and tainted and substandard food and drugs.

For instance, last year 11 people died in China after being treated with an injection tainted by a poisonous chemical. Six people died and 80 others fell ill after taking an antibiotic that had been produced, according to government regulators, with a “substandard disinfectant.”

Small drug makers in China have long been accused of manufacturing phony or substandard drugs and marketing them to the nation’s hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. And mass poisonings involving tainted food products are common.

The Chinese government has stepped up its patrols in recent weeks, announcing measures aimed at strengthening food and drug safety and cracking down on counterfeiting operations.

On Tuesday, the government said it was preparing to release its first regulation on nationwide food recalls. It also said it would crack down on food products that are being illegally exported, bypassing food inspections.

As for Mr. Zheng, the government said that as director of the Food and Drug Administration, he took bribes worth about $850,000 in exchange for approving drug production licenses.

Worried that many of those drugs may be substandard, China is reviewing more than 170,000 production licenses the agency issued in the past decade.

It is unclear whether or when Mr. Zheng will be executed. In some cases, death sentences for officials are commuted.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
That seems to be the way the wind is blowing. One wonders the situation in the domestic market, if this is what they ship to the international scene. There was also a situation with tainted medicine from China showing up in Panama IIRC.

Normally I wouldn't be one to jump on a panic bandwagon like this, but this time it seems different, not just an isolated example, but rather the tip of the iceberg.

[Japher]

This is a big reason why I am for US Ag subsides

[DaShi]

Don't be so quick to trust the USFDA either. Most of it's funding comes from the US drug industry, and Congress has been slow to pass reforms. But at least here, you can sue the ass of companies that use poison in their products, which keeps them honest in this case.

[chequita guevara]

It doesn't keep them all that honest. Lots of states have "veggie libel" laws, so you if you cause damage to businesses by claiming their products are dangerous, they can sue you, ala the Oprah hamburger case. Plus, the ability to sue does you no good if you're dead. Sure, your relatives can profit from your murder, but you're still taking the infinite sleep.

[DaShi]

True, it's not a perfect system and is in dire need of reform. But it's not as bad as what is occuring in China and the effects on worldwide consumers.