Toxic syrup has figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the precise origin of the poison has never been determined.
But records and interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China, a major source of counterfeit drugs.
[…]
Panama’s death toll leads directly to Chinese companies that made and exported the poison as 99.5 percent pure glycerin.
Beyond Panama and China, toxic syrup has caused mass poisonings in Haiti, Bangladesh, Argentina, Nigeria and twice in India.
Close the borders to Chinese food and ingredient imports – do it now, please.
Someone from Ontario may have more information on a Toronto man, Chinese Canadian, who has been trying to have Chinese food products banned from Canada ever since his father died while visiting China, from eating contaminated food. I saw a brief clip on CTV national news a few weeks ago. Why does it take pets dying for someone to take notice?
And, why was China awarded the Olympics? I see trouble ahead.
A friend of mine has a factory in China. He has been a resident for many years. His comments before all this broke were prescient.
HE was talkig about the history and how the Communist Party replaced any spirituality with their ideology. But that has fallen aside. His point was that nobody really cares about much else other than immeadiate family.
His comments, this is a couple of years ago, were that there were numerous scandals in China about badly designed, badly built products. That it is seen as largelt caveat empto and that nobody cares unless they get caught….seen as just business.
This is an extension of that. I would ensure that any Chinese food product needs to be double checked and on a regular basis for compliance.
There is a more to this. I had forgotten the comment until this recent issue. It is the business and regulatory culture over there….very “wild west” anything goes.
I doubt very much there is any significant oversight. It is all about $$$, anyhow, anyway, especially if it is being sold to non Chinese.
Anti-freeze in syrup for medicines, melamine in pet food and chicken feed – can you imagine how bad it would be if the Chineses government were actively trying to poison the West? Or maybe they are already trying to find the holes in our food supply.
Do we hear diddly from this enormous federal government of ours? Not a peep.
Why? Because they are busy filling their pants, that’s why, hoping this will somehow just go away.
It may seem to be unrelated, but a few years ago, after the SARS incident in Canada, after which I didn’t trust our governments (provincial and federal: Liberals, remember) to do the right thing, I stopped eating in Chinese restaurants.
Given the Chinese government’s and officials’ cavalier attitutde about SARS, not admitting it was a problem, not quarantining individuals that had it, etc., and our own governments’ negligence, I reasoned, “what if someone in this owner’s family has recently been to China and has been exposed to SARS?” Their officials and OURS (for G*d’s sake) quite possibly have been negligent. Why take the chance?”
I suppose that could be seen as an over-reaction. On the other hand, better safe than sorry, and I and my family don’t NEED to eat Chinese food, as much as I like it.
When I felt like popcorn the other day I reached for my popcorn container. Hmmm. What kind? Orville Redenbacher’s or ACT II (the kind I can buy in my local video store)? When I read the instructions on the ACT II package, one whole side of the bag was in Chinese. No thanks. Garbage. That’s it for ACT II; it could lead to the FINAL ACT!
‘Think I’ll stick to good ol’ boy Orville.
Why are these contaminated foods and medication allowed into Canada? I thought we had Health Canada and CFIA checking these products out before they are made available for our consumption. Why do we have these organizations if they are not doing their job to protect Canadians from just such an occurance?
Why are Canadian companies moving en mass to China–is it not for this very fact that the controls are so much more lax in China than they are in Canada?
As mentioned above–our government dare not speak against China–there is too much Canadian business involved. Wonder if CSL hauls these poisons to Canada?
“Close the borders to Chinese food and ingredient imports – do it now, please.”
What, no inspection and regulatory controls in place for Chinese food goods? ….Think the import loop holes had anything to do with 2 Liberal PMs and the LPC corporate network deeply invested in production, exporting and transporting Chinese goods to Canadian markets?
All we need to do is put Chinese goods through the same test requirements and standards domestic products must meet…and have some truth in product lableing where % content and country of origin is concerned.
Personally I feel that any Canadian importer who uses Chinese goods or retails them is legally/morally neglegent if he doen’t restrict his importing to Chinese companies which have ISO operational/quality certification and are accountable to our tort laws.
….outside of the guarantee of standard business ethics this promises, you can’t trust the corporate motive of a Chinese company….and I say this from first hand exprince in dealing with them for a decade in the indutrial electronics sector…shoddy goods…only thing that matteres is getting the contract…they make no attempts to improve quality…they think that if you complain they have solved a problem by firing someone and keeping the same cheap crap going out the door.
We took Chinese companies off the vender’s list unless they were ISO certified or a subsidiary of a domestic ISO company…I’ll bet there’s damn few players in their food processing industry that would qualify for ISO certification…they just don’t care, and they sure as hell don’t want to leave records or paper trails…it’s easier to cover up liability if you are a connected corporation in a corrupt political syastem like China.
….for every poison syrup bottle to latin America there are 2 million unpoised ones to sell somewhere else…make apology and just continue on…that is the Chinese business ethic…they don’t respect consumer safety, patent laws or intellectual property…anything is game to make a buck on the market…so far the strategy is to slit competition’s throats by dunping goods over here at near zero margins to undercut domestic competition by 2/3 and put the profit in the importer’s jeans so he’ll go back to China again for more goods and eventually collapse domestic producers.
The Chinese business plan and industrial model is not free market laissez-faire capitalism…it is militant,amoral cartel corporatism.
WL Mac – ISO standard certification of companies would do little to alleviate any fears of tainted food products from these producers.
Having been a part of 3 different different companys’ certification process, I can atest that ISO certification is little more than another layer of beaurocracy that does little to ensure a quality end product.
The world banned Canadian beef at the first sniff of the mad cow hysteria, yet we KNOW Chinese food additives are poising generations of people and pets and still we choose to do nothing.
Gotta love the double standard.
China is up to something Now is this accedental or delibarate?
Shere Khan: as a former ISO registrar and current auditor and consultant I can attest that certification “indicates” a desire of the company to be ethical and responsible to the community, supply chain, customer and end user.
I won’t argue with you, but suffice to say the serveral ISO standards to certify a food processor link into international environmental, public safety and hygene standards….and ISO requires audits and inspections and records of same by independent sources…I don’t know who your facillitator or registrar was but it seems like they left you with the wrong impressions/info as to what ISO standards are about.
Last summer after visiting a chinese buffet restaurant I was more or less bed ridden for 3 weeks. In the fall I visted another chinese place and was able to walk but couldn’t eat for two days. Have I learned my lesson, YES. The first place was closed down and no complaint from me.
cheers
don dow
Remember, China does not have an philosophy that holds human life as inherently valuable. Therefore, the profit factor far outweighs the risk of death or injury factor. There’s no capitalist like a commie capitalist! (Some Canadians come to mind…)
Could zombuddy plizz rec imend a gouds Cheneze restiraunt for me an my Libarrel frenz to eat uh at zee next time we iz in Voncoovare?
Sincerely
Borat Dion
Donovan,
Big difference between a chinese buffet and food products from china.
Kinda like saying I had a bad french fry thus making french food suspect.
enough
Strange how that when they were having that problem with the tainted spinach last year we did,nt hear a thing from PETA,PCRM and CSPI and the rest of the food police and animal rights wackos
Loretta Westin is correct when she says that “…China does not have a philosophy that holds human life as inherently valuable.”
Anything goes when you don’t value the inherent dignity of the human person; human dignity is a basic tenet of the Judeo-Christian faith upon which North American and European business practices are based. Unbridled Capitalism is wrong, but it is indisputable that, in general, Western Capitalism has provided more democratic freedoms and human rights than any other economic system in the world.
It’s too bad that China doesn’t share our values when it comes to ethical business practices. And wouldn’t you know it? Librano$ like Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, and Mo Strong are setting up businesses in China and will probably make a killing. I’m reminded of a Tom Waits’ line: a rat always knows when it’s in with weasels. I think we’ve got rats and weasels here…
Kate if you think this through, I’m sure you’re not so distrustful of Canadian importers, food processors, retailers and consumers that you think that only Daddy Government can protect them from themselves. Do you think that business owners and managers are so stupid that they would continue to import food that could be tainted? Are shoppers so dumb that they can’t phone the 1-800 numbers on the bags of dog food they buy to find out what’s in it, and invite the companies to consider what merry hell they will get if they’re fibbing?
China has a bad government. They interfere too much in private business and a lot of corruption and shoddy practices are the result. Why does the government interfere so much? Because they think that people have to be protected from themselves by government, and because they can get rich off the bribes, kickbacks and cronyism. Neither of which are a good reason to imitate them here in Canada.
People seem a little slow in catching on to the fact that our newfound dependency on Chinese grain imports has a lot to do with the obsession of eco-loons (and opportunistic political weasels) with subsidized “clean” fuels made from grain. Which is a little bit odd, because half the stories I see on conservative blogs are about the dangers of environmental hysteria. Connect the dots – hyperventilating green crusaders…opportunistic political hacks…welfare-loving farmers putting every possible square inch of the country into corn production…skyrocketing grain prices…chemically enhanced puppy chow.
Demonizing foreign bogeymen and starting a trade war may be a great way to pander to people’s fear and win elections. Actually it’s an excellent short-term strategy, for politicians, party hacks and bureaucrats. The rest of you – snap out of it.
…any bets how many will die from food poisoning in the next year from Chinese products?