FDA Knew of Chinese Use of DEG in Products Ten Years Ago

According to an article published in the New York Times today, there was a similar incident of Chinese-made diethylene glycol (DEG), masquerading as its more expensive chemical cousin glycerin nearly a decade ago.

This incident, which killed dozens of children in Haiti in October of 1997, was traced back to a company in China - with little help from the Chinese government, which ignored the US FDA requests to find the manufacturer and either lost or destroyed business records.

By the time the FDA agent found the factory in China, the plant had already shut down and moved on.

Last month it happened again in Panama, this time killing at least 100 peopled as Chinese toothpaste containing the dangerous chemical DEG was imported into the country to save Chinese manufacturers money on glycerin costs.

According to the New York Times article, "there have been at least five other mass poisonings involving the mislabeled chemical in the past two decades — in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Argentina and twice in India."

I would like to ask all of the politicians running on the platform of "border control" and "homeland security" what they plan to do about this issue, and how they plan to keep it from happening again. Maybe one of them would like to answer in the next Presidential debate?

Chemicals From China Not Killing Just Pets

An article in the New York Times today discusses how forty-six barrels of a toxic chemical known to be poisonous to humans found their way into childrens cough syrup in Panama.

Rather than pretend we can explain this better than the NYT, you should go read the full article yourself. But here is the gist of it:

Glycerin, commonly used in syrupy drugs, toothpaste and other products, is relatively expensive.

Diethylene glycol, a deadly solvent and one of the main ingredients to antifreeze, is relatively cheap.

Chinese counterfeit drug manufacturers wanted to save some money and exported the poison to Panama, passing it off as glycerin.

The diethylene glycol found its way into 260,000 bottles of childrens cold medicine, and 365 deaths have been reported SO FAR.

These are innocent children dying, and parents grieving, wrestling with the knowledge that they fed their own child poison.

All so a company in china could cut corners to make a buck.

So for anyone out there who thinks that our dogs and cats are the only family members put in harms way because of our one-way, open trade policy with China - let this be an eye opener.

Maybe "the war on terrorism" isn't our biggest threat today... ?