The Daily Times | May 10, 2007
The most serious import threat American consumers have ever had to face is right under our noses and the people in government who ought to be protecting us are using side-stepping, slippery language that ought to raise alarms, but does not.
The agency is the Food and Drug Administration and last week, they warned American drug makers to be “especially vigilant” and on the lookout for the substitution of diethylene glycol for glycerin in cough syrups, fever medication and some food products.
Diethylene glycol is the poisonous ingredient in antifreeze that kills animals attracted to its sweet taste.
What the FDA didn’t mention was where to look for it. They didn’t mention China.
An Associated Press report says the FDA rarely rejects food ingredients from China.
The AP report said that former FDA employees said, “They simply don’t rank high on the agency’s priority list of items to inspect.”
China was just exposed — again — for exporting medicines using diethylene glycol in place of glycerin.
Drug manufacturing plants in China were connected to a large number of deaths of children because of diethylene glycol in medicine in 1992 in Bangladesh.
This time, it’s Panama and the death toll is 365 and counting. They’re exhuming bodies down there, looking at a large number of unexplained deaths that might be connected.
Last month, we were counting up a growing number of dead pets because a Chinese plant put melamine in wheat gluten used by American pet food manufacturers.
Yeah, melamine is the same plastic stuff from which we make dishes.
We have a trade deficit with China. They profit. We lose. They have an irresponsible government with a lousy human rights history. The Bush administration continues to grant China its Most-Favored-Nation trade status.
Our FDA, for budgetary or whatever reasons, doesn’t protect us from China’s use of poisonous ingredients in food and medicine. Why are we dealing with China? Why don’t we boycott them?
2 responses so far ↓
Terri // June 29, 2007 at 6:36 am
I will no longer buy any food products from china, including tooth paste, mouth wash, pet foods. And I will spread the world to everyone I know to do so as well. Boycott china products.
pjwalker911 // June 29, 2007 at 7:56 am
Check out the archive category on Food Safety. The problem is absolutely rampant and getting worse all the time. It is becoming harder to trace ingredients in toothpaste, processed foods, breads, and the true source of produce, fish, meats, etc. Switch to organic sources and grill grocery managers on the sources of their products. Try to buy local and in-state products, produce, etc when possible. All this is the result of globalization, one of the biggest con-jobs on the planet.