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At least 94 dead in Panama from tainted medicine made in China

Katana

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A top Panamanian prosecutor said tests show at least 94 people have died from taking medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and that 293 more deaths are under investigation.

Prosecutor Dimas Guevara told The Associated Press on Wednesday that people have continued to die this year even though the tainted medicine was pulled from shelves in October, with some struggling for months before dying.

...

A chemical commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid, diethylene glycol was used in cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made in a Panama government laboratory.

Investigations revealed the chemical was made by a Chinese company that fraudulently passed it off as 99.5 percent pure glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs, to a Spanish company. That company sold it to Panama's Medicom SA, which sold it to a government laboratory.

...

Three Medicom executives are being held in prison, charged with crimes against public health in connection with the deaths.
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Link

Oh, and in case you missed it, the ingredient in the Veggie Booty blamed for the Salmonella cases has been traced back to China.

:mad:
 
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Time to go through my cupboards.

We shop frequently at Asian grocery markets and get way too much food made in China. This has become ridiculous. The risk may be small, but I am just not going to feed this stuff to my kids. I doubt there's much I can do about ingredients in US products, but I can at least eliminate the obvious.
 
Miss Anthrope said:
Time to go through my cupboards.

We shop frequently at Asian grocery markets and get way too much food made in China. This has become ridiculous. The risk may be small, but I am just not going to feed this stuff to my kids. I doubt there's much I can do about ingredients in US products, but I can at least eliminate the obvious.
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That last part is what bothers me.

Now, some may argue that it would be extreme to avoid all products made in China, but, the bottom line is, we likely can't anyway. Even the head of the company who made the Veggie Booty had no idea where the ingredients came from, so how are we supposed to?

Let's just say that I'd prefer that that information was available. It would then up to the consumer to do whatever he/she may wish with that information, but at least he/she would have the option.
 
Exactly. There is no way to know if ingredients are from China or not . There are at least three apologists for China on this forum who have consistently argued elsewhere it is the victim's fault and not the Chinese. These folks are, of course, admitting to be consultants or China traders and are lining their pockets with profits made off Chinese products themselves.

They have argued it is the fault of the companies who use Chinese prodicts
to be more diligent and check these products before they unleash them on an unsuspecting public. Recently there has been some action in that direction. For a discussion of this subject also see the thread here:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81470

Be that as it may these apologists also know there is no way the national origin of every ingredient of every product is going to wind up on the product label and people and pets will continue to die. I lost one dog to melamine tainted dog food myself and a second dog who vomited his guts out for four months while the vet kept telling me to try this diet and that (all on the tainted list by the way) and finally said he had cancer and needed to be
euthanized. Before I allowed that I switched him to 100% fresh people food
(e.g. chicken and beef) and from day 1 he never vomited again and started to gain weight. He is now back to his 100% old self. And this was a few months before the news came out about the tainted pet food ingredients.

My point is it is possible to avoid products from China, particuarly those that will be ingested (eaten) by buying fresh and knowing where it came from.
 
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Here is good evidence of the contention that not only consumers but often times even manufacturers have no idea of the origin of the ingredients they use to make their products:

Rare strain of salmonella in rice snack hits
Craig Schneider in Atlanta
July 7, 2007

A POPULAR children's snack has been recalled in the US after at least 57 people contracted a rare form of salmonella poisoning in an 18-state outbreak.

No one has died from the outbreak, which scientists have linked to Veggie Booty, a snack of puffed rice and corn with a vegetable coating. On its website, the manufacturer, Robert's American Gourmet of New York, said its preliminary independent test results indicate the likely cause of the contamination was the product's seasoning, the sources of which come primarily from China.
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http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/ra...hildren-hardest/2007/07/06/1183351455131.html

Right now the language used in these reports as "likely" but it points out that even something as innocuous as seasonings, acquired domestically by a manufacturer for their product made domestically, could be from a suspect overseas source and nobody has any idea that this could be the case.
 
Well, China may not have a handle on what's creating real dead but it's certainly got the fake dead covered.

Seriously, though, that's remarkably disconcerting. What the hell is going on over there and why isn't our media humping this into the ground?
 
Unfortunately this isn't a mere video game......

The problem is not only with Chinese exports but with goods consumed domestically as well. Here are two of the latest outrages to make headlines worldwide...I know we have a few members here that work in China so this is for them as well as anyone:

Latest Chinese Cuisine: Waste Paper and Used Cardboard

Steamed buns made from up to 60 percent of waste paper and used cardboard join the list of dangerous food in China. China's state-run television network CCTV exposed the bogus buns using hidden cameras. The reporters found that vendors mixed the chopped up waste cardboard with fatty meat to make the buns, known as "bao zi", in a backstreet Beijing operation.To get the right consistency the cardboard was shown being soaked in a poisonous, caustic soda.The cardboard was used to cut costs. The bun makers said they did not believe customers would be able to tell the difference between a real and a fake "bao zi".
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http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=63578


And if eating toxic cardboard pork buns doesn't make you feel the least bit queasy, the following is even of much greater concern:


Beijing was also investigating bogus rabies vaccines, the Beijing Times said, after a woman bitten by a neighbor's dog injected vaccine she bought from a local hospital.

Authorities found the hospital had been selling phials of vaccine taken off shelves two years earlier for quality problems, the paper said.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSPEK7132420070712
 
Sure is a shame they executed that Chinese FDA guy isn't it :rolleyes: boo hoo, sniffle. Those evil SOBs, I can't believe they overreacted like that. Tito pass me a tissue
 
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