It seems extreme that China sentenced the former head of its food and drug safety agency to death until you consider how many people and animals have died from contaminated Chinese products. But the problem is much bigger than one person who took bribes.
Recent scandals involving phony medicine and tainted food, cough syrup and toothpaste have revealed how few controls there are on what China exports. But as columnist Harold Meyerson argued on today’s Opinion page, the United States shares some blame from this lack of regulation. Some American businesses are so eager to sell to the Chinese market that they pressure U.S. policymakers not to place many barriers on Chinese exports — including meddlesome safety inspectors.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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23 Comments
The US FDS shold vigorously examine statistically significant amounts of all food imports, not just those from China. And the more found, the larger the sample necessary.For individuals, try buying your produce, dairy, and meat products locally produced. Maybe not always possible, Maybe more hassle, possibly more expensive, but definately a lot healthier if you research your suppliers.
Buying local is not only healthier for us, it is healthier for the local and national economy.
I think it is also a larger national security issue than “Producing more students with math and science skills.”
I buy nearly all of my meat locally produced, and I mean from the the farmer, not the local meat locker though that is a good altenative. . In the summer, a good deal of my produce. In the winter, of course, not so much. I buy a lot of my eggs that are gathered by local farmers. My dairy I no longer purchase from any farmers, but stephens dairy is still local i think.
EagleConsistency PLEASE!
Weren’t you recently complaining, on THIS Blog, even, about “barriers” to imported drugs? Congress recently mandated that the FDA must certify foreign drugs as “sage” — prior to any law mandating that any imported drugs be covered by group health plans or government programs, remember?You, Wichita Eagle, complained about that.
drugs as “SAFE”, sorry
What is most likely to affect you and I, some terrorist with a gun and a bomb in Iraq, or some terrorist with some chemicals in a Chinese (or other foreign or domestic) consumer goods production plant?
Shouldn’t the ‘war on terror’ be targeted primarily on protecting us from those threats we are most at risk from? Rather than just the most sensational risks, like the possibility of something blowing up, let us watch our for those things that have the highest risk of affecting the average American.
I don’t think anyone here felt safe purchasing drugs made in china. Come on.
I do wish we had more regulations on what is imported. We could have so many more jobs here if only we’d stop buying their products.
I went to the dollar store and bought some of those butterscotch discs. They tasted like … yuck…like some kind of funky aftertaste like if you drink funky water.
The package said it was made in Venezuela…and I got to thinking…wonder if they have any kind of regulation on the products they put into these…like are they making it out of toilet water and we just don’t know it?
I work in Quality Assurances, I know for a fact that corporations by-passes safety requirements just so they can compete against other companies.If you want to know the truth, it sucks because Quality is used just for a show and tell status for those contracts.
Nothing will change until we change the mindset of the politicians who are only interested in keeping lobbyists for global traitors (traders) from makin their greedy profits anyway they can. These importers do not care how many Chinese products are unsafe, they are only interested in how much money they are making off the stupid Americans willing to pay for Chinese crap.
The key is to stop buying the Chinese crap and make it be known the reason Americans are not buying into this whole global corporation crap.
If we are waiting for some politicians to give a rat’s ass about this issue, then you have a long wait my friend. They follow the money trail.
Maybe the US should have accountability like China for food and product safety. Death penalty anyone?
Buy American if you can find it. Pay a little more for it if you have to. Buy locally grown or made items. Stop supporting the “cheapest out there”. Badmouth Walmart all you want, but people chose to buy the cheapest, regardless of where it came from. They are not the world’s largest retailer just because they (fill in the blank). They are the world’s largest retailer because people shop there. Period. Buy American, buy local whenever available.
Unfortunately, we can’t escape China even by buying American. Take vitamin C, for example. I believe there is now only 1 domestic producer; by far most vitamin C comes from China. The same is true for many other products that get incorporated into American goods…and there’s no way to trace the ultimate source of every ingredient, since they usually come through middlemen.
very good point BFAH. You could buy Joe American brand pet food for Fluffy and feel you were getting a safe American product. However, how would you have known they were sourcing some of their ingredients from China?There is no visibility to many aspects of products we purchase and use. Nor do I think there should be. Thus far in the world’s history, the cost of proactively identifying and communicating the source of all of the content of every product does not justify the benefit.
We all need to accept that things happen. If you don’t feel comfortable buying product X because you don’t know what is in it or where those ingredients came from, just don’t buy it.
pmom
A BUNCH of internet-purchased prescription drugs come from Asia.
Much of that from India, of course, which is far more stable than China.
Even so, as posted here, much of our “Vitamin C” comes from China.
Not hard to believe that they are making other “knock off” products, like Prescription drugs.
The Eagle is completely telling lies. First of all, if the foodstuff we got from China was unsafe we’d ban it, like we do American made drugs imported from Canada.
Second of all, we all know what Libertarians tell us, it’s only regulation which makes things unsafe. Since these products aren’t regulated they can’t possibly be unsafe.
If we start banning material from China that kills us, and allow safe drug imports then the liberals will win. We can’t forget the lessons from 9/11, regulations are the cause of homosexuality and Osama Bin Laden.
While some here are content to do the limbough dance, others are questioning how all these contaminated products are getting here from China, and what we have to do to stop it at the entry point, or even before.
China seems to think by killing the guy in charge, we are going to say, “Okay, the stuff is okay now.” I hope that’s not what happens. Serious steps should be taken, including sanctions, against China to preclude it from ever happening again.
With the current administration, good luck.
buying internet meds illegally and buying meds from canada is not the same thing. I don’t purchase my meds from the internet.
And I googled Vitamin C and Made in the USA..and there are far more than one source of vit c from the USA.
political_mom,
I assume you’re looking at vitamin c caplets or pills bottled by various companies or distributors based in the US. Indeed, those pills were “made in the USA” but the component vitamin C wasn’t. A partial list of worldwide manufacturers of vitamin C are:
Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone Skyopen Intl Co., Ltd. [China]
SEPAC Co., Ltd [China]
Shaanxi Zenith I/E Co., Ltd [China]
Pingguang Pharmaceutical Group (Jiaozuo) Xianda Trade Co., Ltd [China]
The bulk ascorbic acid plant at Belvidere in New Jersey is expected to close in the third quarter, leading to around 150 job cuts. DSM has already axed 200 jobs at its Dalry plant in Scotland.
The announcement has been expected for some time and reflects China’s increasing domination of global vitamin production.
DSM shares the global market for vitamin C, the largest of the vitamins in volume terms to be produced by the group, with BASF and around four other Chinese companies.
One of the biggest Chinese producers, North China Pharmaceutical Co (NCPC), claims that around 80 per cent of its 20,000 tons of vitamin C currently goes to the European market.
DSM has charged higher prices for long-term contracts with key accounts, based on advantages in terms of services and quality. But development of the market suggests that it may not be able to sustain these prices in the long-term.
One of the things I find funny about the whole Canadian drug debate, is the current reality. I can go to any drugstore and buy many OTC antihistimines, pain relievers, and cold remedies that clearly state on the packaging that they are made in Canada. But the Government feels the need to protect me from drugs made in America, exported to Canada, then purchased by and shipped to me in the US.
The situation is really screwed up. Our farmers are selling corn to ethanol producers. Our livestock producers can’t get enough corn because the price has gone too high, so they are feeding livestock not-fit-for-human-consumption trail mix and Kit-Kat bar pieces.
Does this make sense? Does it make sense to import poisoned livestock feeds to our animals from China, for our consumption?
good point Brian. Follow the money and you will soon learn the problem. In the US, politicians are caving into special interest lobbyists who ‘protect’ their own - even if it means gouging the American public. Patriotic, huh?
Actually, I rather like the Chinese approach to the problem. Any FDA official who takes a bribe (or promise of a job offer) to approve a drug later found to be unsafe, along with the CEO of a company that markets a drug they know might have safety issues, need to be tried on capital murder charges, and if convicted, given the needle.
A few muts die from imported food from China and now the Chinese are bad manufacturers who poison food!!! What are you people talking about? I dont think it is in Chinas best interest to use lethal ingredients in their products. Worry more about the fat issue in this country. Fat kids, fat adults and the high death rate from overeating locally grown food is a little more of a problem than freaking dog food from China.My wife is a first grade school teacher who has to, every year, bring to school a can of pop and a bag of chips or candy to show the kids what is a “bad snack.” Not their parents but the teacher has to show them. The parents are too busy buying the cheap junk food (most of it made in the US)that the kids bring to school.