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Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.
Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.
Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.
Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.
These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.
For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.
Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China
Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday that the product appeared to have originated in China.
“Our preliminary information is that it came from China, but we don’t know that with certainty yet,” said Daniel Delgado Diamante, Panama’s director of customs. “We are still checking all the possible imports to see if there could be other shipments.”
Some of the toothpaste, which arrived several months ago in the free trade zone next to the Panama Canal, was re-exported to the Dominican Republic in seven shipments, customs officials said. A newspaper in Australia reported yesterday that one brand of the toothpaste had been found on supermarket shelves there and had been recalled.
Diethylene glycol is the same poison that the Panamanian government inadvertently mixed into cold medicine last year, killing at least 100 people. Records show that in that episode the poison, falsely labeled as glycerin, a harmless syrup, also originated in China.
There is no evidence that the tainted toothpaste is in the United States, according to American government officials.
This is definitely a major concern for me, and I think it applies to everything outsourced to China, not just food. I've heard horror stories about the quality of outsourced manufacturing and software development from China, for example.
I think eventually there will be a major incident involving imported Chinese products, similar to the recent pet food/wheat gluten problem, but worse. Apparently our federal government does not adequately inspect imported food.
Personally, I'm boycotting Trader Joe's. Some of their frozen organic vegetables are now coming from China. The store manager tried to tell me TJ's runs their own inspection. I've emailed TJ's - still waiting for an answer.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/17262474.htm (broken link)
Bayh asks Bush, FDA to restrict Chinese food, medicine imports
On edit: I also contacted both my senators requesting they support Bayh.
Last edited by tigerlily; 05-22-2007 at 01:14 PM..
Reason: additional sentence
Hawkeye48
Washington should really clamp down on this. They clearly know it's happening but seem to be sweeping it under the rug.
I agree; seems as though the American government is hell bent on bringing anything and everything into this country that harms us more than helps us. The politicians in Washington do not care about our safety and they seem to be proving that more and more.
I have a question...How has the signing of the Free Trade Act helped America? Scratch that question. How has the signing of the Free Trade Act helped the American citizen? Please do not tell me that the cost of goods would be much higher. I do not believe that. I for one think that yes, the cost of goods would be higher but, I also feel that the wages in America would be higher which would offset the higher costs that we would pay. The only benefit I have seen is to big business and that benefit has cost the citizens in America jobs by the thousands. I hope every one of you reading this realize that manufacturing = power. Power that are elected officials seem intent on giving to China. The politicians in Washington are committing genocide against the American worker and we continue to allow them to get away with it. I feel that I do not even have to bring up the immigration debate because that goes without saying.
Eww what the hell is catfish coming from China before. I'm not going to buy any of the stuff and I wish that kind of food import stuff would be banned.
China needs to chill the f out and stop being a greedy, desperate capitalist country that it is. The rich man through the eye of the needle statement certainly applies to them. Their intensity of capitalism is just gross. Is catfish native to China, can they even have catfish farms that thrive like in the United States? Plain weird they're going to ruin their health and landscape for a buck.
Guess we're going to have to read the labels on everything now and make sure it's not from China. Why on earth are we importing food from China? Don't we have enough agricultural areas in the USA to provide our own food? Ok, I know it has something to do with Free Trade, but I'm wishing now we had about 10 acres so we could grow everything for ourselves and our family. First they killed our pets, now are they going for us?
I'm joining you tigerlilly in emailing my congressmen/women!
FL_TN_Nana
Guess we're going to have to read the labels on everything now and make sure it's not from China. Why on earth are we importing food from China? Don't we have enough agricultural areas in the USA to provide our own food? Ok, I know it has something to do with Free Trade, but I'm wishing now we had about 10 acres so we could grow everything for ourselves and our family. First they killed our pets, now are they going for us?
I'm joining you tigerlilly in emailing my congressmen/women
!
Yes, we do have enough agricultural areas in this country. It is still cheaper for company's to use China. The employees in China average between .25 and .50 cents an hour in pay. One year we imported $36 billion of goods from China. We exported only $3 billion and most of what we sent out was raw materials to service China's production boom. We export cotton; we bring in clothing, we export hides; we bring in shoes. We export scrap metal; we bring back machinery. I Find it mind boggling that we export the raw materials and get back the product.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For Kurt Runge and millions of other Americans, it's not easy to shop for everyday goods without adding to the ballooning U.S. trade gap with China.
Examining a $12.99 Chinese-made garden spade at a local Home Depot store on Saturday, Runge said price is often the determining factor in his purchase decisions.
"I try to buy American but I have a tight budget and sometimes I just buy the cheapest thing available," said the 25-year-old graduate student.
A similar spade, assembled in the United States from domestic and imported components, cost nearly twice as much, at $24.97. It stayed on the store's display rack.
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