Quote:

FDA detains Chinese seafood due to drug fears
Five species tested for chemicals; U.S. says no immediate threat
AP Updated: 8:24 p.m. ET June 28, 2007
WASHINGTON - Farmed seafood joined tires, toothpaste and toy trains on the list of tainted and defective products from China that could be hazardous to a person’s health.

Federal health officials said Thursday that they were detaining three types of Chinese fish — catfish, basa and dace — as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing has turned up contamination with drugs unapproved in the United States for use in farmed seafood.

The officials said there was no immediate health risk and stopped short of ordering an outright ban.
The Food and Drug Administration announcement was only the latest in an expanding series of problems with imported Chinese products that seemingly permeate U.S. society.

Beyond the fish, federal regulators have warned consumers in recent weeks about lead paint in toy trains, defective tires, and toothpaste made with diethylene glycol, a toxic ingredient more commonly found in antifreeze. All the products were imported from China.

This spring, 154 brands of pet food were recalled after tainted ingredients that killed an unknown number of cats and dogs were traced to two Chinese companies by the Food and Drug Administration.

China guarantees safety
China, meanwhile, insisted Thursday that the safety of its products was “guaranteed,” making a rare direct comment on spreading international fears over tainted and adulterated exports.

FDA officials said the levels of the drugs in the seafood was low. The FDA isn’t asking for stores or consumers to toss any of the suspect seafood.

“In order to get cancer in lab animals you have to feed fairly high levels of the drug over a long term,” said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s assistant commissioner for food protection. “We’re talking not days, weeks, not even months but years. At these levels you might not reach that level, but we don’t want to take a chance.”

He added, “We don’t want to be alarmist here. ... it’s a low likelihood.”

The FDA said sampling of Chinese imported fish between October and May repeatedly found traces of the antibiotics nitrofuran and fluoroquinolone, as well as the antifungals malachite green and gentian violet. Of particular concern are the fluoroquinolones, a family of widely used human antibiotics that the FDA forbids in seafood in part to prevent bacteria from developing resistance to these important drugs. The best known example is ciprofloxacin, sold as Cipro, which made headlines as a treatment during the 2001 anthrax attacks.

The FDA will allow individual shipments of the five seafood species into the country if a company can show the products are free of residues of these drugs.

“This action will put a hold on the products of concern at the port of entry. This shifts the burden of proof back to the importer to prove to us that it is safe,” Acheson said.
Not a new concern
China is the third largest exporter of seafood to the United States, according to the FDA. More than half of its global seafood exports are farmed. But only about 5 percent of farmed Chinese fish is inspected by the FDA, agency officials said.

The use of drugs in foreign fish farming operations has long been a concern of federal and state regulators. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi recently banned imports of catfish from China after tests detected antibiotics not approved for use in humans.

“Clearly the addition of these drugs, it’s a deliberate event,” Margaret Glavin, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, told reporters. “If they stop adding them the problem is going to go away.”

The FDA acted after finding problems with 15 percent of the Chinese seafood it tested. Glavin said the FDA also has found companies in the Philippines and Mexico using the drugs and has issued similar import alerts for those firms’ products.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Tainted Chinese goods could lead to trade war
Tainted Chinese toothpaste had wider reach
High price to pay for a bargain: our safety
Last week on one of the 3 major networks evening newscasts even reported that Chinese were feeding sewage to pigs to fatten them up before going to the slaughterhouse although I can't find a link to it now.
I personally won't eat or drink anything that comes from China. With their lax in standards and safety who knows what they put in it. Wouldn't suprise me if a terrorist cell infiltrated one of their factories to sicken Americans and other western countries that the goods travel too one of these days. Maybe all this news publicity will spur some good ole' american patriotism .

Spike J wrote:
Maybe all this news publicity will spur some good ole' american patriotism .

I don't think we're allowed to have that anymore.

If Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Libya, Israel, Gernamy, Russia, Austrio-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire have told us anything, we could use a lot less patriotism. It tends to do nothing buy destroy and kill for no other reason than for the dirt you were shat onto.


Goodbye Callisto & Skaði, Hello Ishara:
2022 Kia Stinger GT2 AWD
The only thing every single person from every single walk of life on earth can truly say
they have in common is that their country is run by a bunch of fargin iceholes.

Anyone remember the character that Dan Aykroyd played on SNL.. Irwin Mainway? He'd sell dangerous toys: Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Vipers, Johnny Space Commander Mask, Johnny Human Torch....

This kinda reminds me of that.




Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

I preferred the Bass-O-Matic '76


Goodbye Callisto & Skaði, Hello Ishara:
2022 Kia Stinger GT2 AWD
The only thing every single person from every single walk of life on earth can truly say
they have in common is that their country is run by a bunch of fargin iceholes.

zero wrote:

Spike J wrote:
Maybe all this news publicity will spur some good ole' american patriotism .

I don't think we're allowed to have that anymore.

To hell with that. My flags are coming out tomorow!


---

zero wrote:

Spike J wrote:
Maybe all this news publicity will spur some good ole' american patriotism .

I don't think we're allowed to have that anymore.

Keeper of the Light wrote:If Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Libya, Israel, Gernamy, Russia, Austrio-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire have told us anything, we could use a lot less patriotism. It tends to do nothing buy destroy and kill for no other reason than for the dirt you were shat onto.

See, told ya. You must be ashamed to be from America. Do not be proud. Do not own a flag. Do not wave a flag. Do not sing the national anthem. Hide in your basement on July 4th, reminding yourself that you hate everything.

Patriotism isn't such a bad thing on it's own: combine it with entitlement and arrogance... and well, you get the gist of what Keeper said.

As far as living in the US and being a patriot: You cannot have all that is good about being in a first world nation without accepting the bad that comes with it as well.




Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

^^^Bingo. IMNSHO, you're not allowed to have pride unless you have shame first.


Goodbye Callisto & Skaði, Hello Ishara:
2022 Kia Stinger GT2 AWD
The only thing every single person from every single walk of life on earth can truly say
they have in common is that their country is run by a bunch of fargin iceholes.

[quote=Keeper of the Light™]^^^Bingo. IMNSHO, you're not allowed to have pride unless you have shame first.
So a parent isn't allowed to be proud of their newborn unless they've been ashamed of them? Odd.

proud <> pride

proud is a source of pride.

On that note, pride means a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

So I don't really see it being compatible with the concept of shame, GAM.


---

I never said a word about shame.




Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

Sorry, I mean KOTL


---

Better

Then again, being Patriotic in the USA is dead easy. Look at all you have.

Try being patriotic in a sub-saharan country that has the pock-marked face of its dictatorial leader ensconced on the flag, where the median temperature is only slightly cooler than hell, and your anthem changes on said leaders' whim; which in this month's case is the theme from Shaft. That's a hard thing to do.




Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

In the realm of nationalism or, really any facet of ones identity, it's my no-so-humble belief that the problems that involves clashes of those facets between people have to do with the over-arrogance that their (insert identifying facet di jure--like race, religion, national origin, et al) is not only better, but is wholly unassailable on the innocence and non-corruptedness scale.

For example. The people that spout off so much that that have pride in america and are über-proud to be American also have this belief that America can, and has done no wrong. Or, if it has, it's not worth mentioning.

Ditto on any religion.

Ditto on any race.

Therein lies the problem.

It seems to me that the neo-patriots are leading us to believe that America is untra-perfect, that we should all be super-proud to be american, and @!#$ red, white, and blue. That America has never done anything wrong. Yet in my ultra misanthropic and cynical mind, whever i try to do that (just to appease boredom every now and then), i can help but think back to the Patriot Act, US interventions in Latin america, McCarthyism, Manzanar, and Manifest Destiny--among others. While yes, This country isn't a @!#$hole, we have been, and in many ways still are, complete and utter bastards (and for the record, neither Canada, Britain, France, Slovakia, Russia, or any other country is really any better).

Before you can be proud of being an American, you need to be ashamed for the bastardry that America has committed, and not turn a blind third eye to it.


Goodbye Callisto & Skaði, Hello Ishara:
2022 Kia Stinger GT2 AWD
The only thing every single person from every single walk of life on earth can truly say
they have in common is that their country is run by a bunch of fargin iceholes.

Quote:

China's army worries about threat to food safety
....This week, domestic media reported on dumplings found to have been stuffed with cardboard scraps.....

Quote:

China blames foreign media for food health scares
Mon Jul 16, 12:33 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreign media have fuelled unfounded fears about Chinese products, the nation's top quality official has said, as China blocked a U.S. protein powder shipment while the two countries sparred over safety worries.

The deaths of patients in Panama from mislabeled drug ingredients from China, deadly toxins in pet food ingredients and food laced with additives and antibiotics have fanned public anxiety in the United States about the safety of China's surging exports.

But foreign reports about tainted Chinese foods had presented isolated failings as the whole picture, said Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

"Some foreign media, especially those based in the U.S., have wantonly reported on so-called unsafe Chinese products. They are turning white to black," he said, according to the China Daily on Monday.

"One company's problem doesn't make it a country's problem."

Chinese inspectors announced that a protein powder from a U.S. supplier contained too much selenium and was being sent back, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

Selenium is a trace mineral essential in small amounts, but too much of it can cause stomach upsets, hair loss and other problems.

At the weekend, China also suspended pork and poultry from some U.S. suppliers after finding salmonella-contaminated chicken and meat products with growth agents or other additives.

The bans, widely reported in the Chinese media, appeared to be Beijing's latest reminder that anxieties about product quality could also be directed at U.S. goods.

Companies affected by the meat ban include some of the giants of American agriculture, including a unit of the private Cargill Inc., and Tyson Foods, the leading U.S. producer of fresh beef and No. 2 producer of chicken and pork.

Another official from the Chinese quality inspection agency, Li Chuanqing, said foreign companies had exaggerated public worries about Chinese goods for their own ends.

An editorial in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official paper, said it was inevitable that the country's rising exports would face tighter scrutiny from choosy foreign customers.

But it also blamed foreign forces seeking to undermine Chinese industry.

"In recent years those people churning out the theory of a China threat have grabbed hold of this issue and not let go, treating isolated cases as the whole and maliciously attacking 'Made in China'," the paper said.

China's criticisms of foreign media and companies are unlikely to alter widespread U.S. public anxiety about foods, medical ingredients, toys and other goods.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a temporary hold on imports of some Chinese seafood until suppliers could prove they were free of harmful residues.

Poorly regulated food and drug safety standards have been a problem for years in China, which has about half a million food processors. The Chinese government has moved in recent weeks to attack the problem, promising stricter oversight.

Last week it executed the former head of its Food and Drug Administration for corruptly approving unsafe drugs.

The People's Daily overseas edition said the country's manufacturers needed to raise their standards.

"If international consumers enjoy high-quality 'Made-in-China,' what do we have to fear from media alarmism?"

Uh huh...

Either way, if I can buy Chinese, and the same product from North America at the same price: I'll take US.



Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

Quote:

Fisher-Price recalling 1.5 million toys
By Nicole Maestri
53 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mattel Inc. is recalling 1.5 million Chinese-made toys worldwide because their paint may contain too much lead-- the latest in a deluge of product safety scares that have tainted the "made in China" brand.
The recalled toys made for Mattel's Fisher-Price unit include popular preschool characters like Elmo and Big Bird along with dozens of other items.

They were made by a contract manufacturer in China using a non-approved paint pigment containing lead, Mattel said on Wednesday.

Lead paint has been linked to health problems in children, including brain damage.

Mattel is asking U.S. consumers and sellers to return 967,000 plastic toys and is recalling another 533,000 from other countries, including Britain, Canada and Mexico.

Mattel's senior vice president of worldwide quality assurance, Jim Walter, said the recall could hit all its markets and traced the problem to a single manufacturer.

"The disappointment here was we had a single contract manufacturer that we had a long-standing relationship with, who did not do what is required by Mattel," Walter said.

The recall comes amid heightened concern worldwide about the safety of China's exports. Many of the previous problem products have involved smaller manufacturers, but now a major company in a sensitive sector has been hit.

"Nobody wants to face that PR nightmare," said Kent Kedl, the Shanghai head of Technomic Asia, which advises companies sourcing out of China. "But the reality is that things slip through the cracks. And the cracks are a little bit bigger here in China."

Walter said the toy maker had launched an investigation. Mattel had stopped producing and shipping toys from that manufacturer, but said it would wait for the findings of the investigation to decide whether to keep doing business with it.

"GOOD AND SAFE"

China has fought back against consumer concern by promising tough quality controls but also accusing foreign media of "alarmist" reporting that could stoke a protectionist backlash.

"Over 99 percent of China's export products are good and safe," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said in Beijing on Wednesday, according to the ministry Web site (www.mofcom.gov.cn).

"We hope that concerned parties can treat Chinese products objectively, fairly and rationally. Don't let this damage the normal development of trade."

In the United States, the Fisher-Price toys were sold nationwide at retail stores between May and August, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

Mattel said U.S. consumers should contact Fisher-Price to arrange a product return.

Mattel said it became aware of the problem in early July and was working with retailers to remove the toys from shelves. It also said it was intercepting shipments to avert further sales.

Of the nearly 1 million products recalled from the U.S. market, Mattel said about 30 percent had reached store shelves.

It declined to identify the manufacturer. In China, offices of Mattel's suppliers referred inquiries back to its head office.

President George W. Bush has ordered a review of U.S. rules intended to keep out harmful imports following a series of scares involving Chinese goods this year.

The United States has stepped up inspections of goods from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of some pets. Toxic ingredients were also found in Chinese fish and toothpaste exports, while the deaths of patients in Panama were blamed on improperly labeled Chinese chemicals mixed into cough syrup.

Chinese-made toy trains were recalled in the United States in June because some may have contained lead paint.

Kedl, the consultant, said China was too important as a manufacturing base for foreign companies to abandon, but they were likely to tread more carefully.

"Multinationals will be more cautious, re-evaluating the cost of doing business in China, but no, they will not quit China."

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Kirby Chien in Beijing)

What a suprise .

I suppose stating that the US went through the same thing in the 30's and 40's, and that you really do get what you pay for, is useless at this point, eh?




Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

GAM (The Kilted One) wrote:Anyone remember the character that Dan Aykroyd played on SNL.. Irwin Mainway? He'd sell dangerous toys: Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Vipers, Johnny Space Commander Mask, Johnny Human Torch....

This kinda reminds me of that.

Hahaha, i remember that. Wasn't there also a Plastic bag mask?


- Paul

That was the Johnny Space Commander Mask.




Transeat In Exemplum: Let this stand as the example.

AGuSTiN wrote:

zero wrote:

Spike J wrote:
Maybe all this news publicity will spur some good ole' american patriotism .

I don't think we're allowed to have that anymore.

To hell with that. My flags are coming out tomorow!

Are they made in China?

[quote=Keeper of the Light™]
For example. The people that spout off so much that that have pride in america and are über-proud to be American also have this belief that America can, and has done no wrong. Or, if it has, it's not worth mentioning.

Ditto on any religion.

Ditto on any race.

Therein lies the problem.

Not necessarily, I am proud to be an American but I do realize that bad thing have been done under our flag. One can be proud of something without the belief that it is perfect. Also, nothing is perfect, all counties have made mistakes. Now, I realize that I was born here and did nothing to earn my citizenship, but it's not pride in myself that is the root of my patriotism, it is pride in the bill of rights, constitution and most of the ideas of our founding fathers. Slavery and the native American/ "white man" conflict are certainly things to remember and try to avoid reliving, but it does not negate the good that Americans have done. The slave trade was practiced by many and we are as much to blame as the Africans who sold us the slaves. The conflict "we" had with the native Americans was largely due to our differences and inability to understand each other. You could argue that we stole land from the "Indians" but they did not believe in ownership of land. We did and we proceeded to claim it, disagreement and battle was inevitable. Who was right? Well, who's to say, without land ownership we wouldn't be the nation that we are today and most of us do own land. It's just said that it came to bloodshed.

[quote=Keeper of the Light™]It seems to me that the neo-patriots are leading us to believe that America is untra-perfect, that we should all be super-proud to be american, and @!#$ red, white, and blue. That America has never done anything wrong. Yet in my ultra misanthropic and cynical mind, whever i try to do that (just to appease boredom every now and then), i can help but think back to the Patriot Act, US interventions in Latin america, McCarthyism, Manzanar, and Manifest Destiny--among others. While yes, This country isn't a @!#$hole, we have been, and in many ways still are, complete and utter bastards (and for the record, neither Canada, Britain, France, Slovakia, Russia, or any other country is really any better).

The last part of that paragraph puts it all in perspective, although I'm sure that most countries have similar pasts. I don't like the term "neo-patriot" I think "ultra-patriot" is more accurate, even though I hate to label people.(it's the first step towards dehumanizing them.) The people that we are trying to describe are just overzealous, I don't think the mean any harm. The road to hell is paved with good intentions

[quote=Keeper of the Light™]Before you can be proud of being an American, you need to be ashamed for the bastardry that America has committed, and not turn a blind third eye to it.

I disagree, I feel pride in America. As a whole, America is composed of mainly good people, but I dislike some of the actions committed by Americans. I think that if one was ever ashamed of America they were painting with too broad of a brush, the same goes for those who hate Americans/America.

GAM (The Kilted One) wrote:Uh huh...

Either way, if I can buy Chinese, and the same product from North America at the same price: I'll take US.

This isn't really a fair comparison. I know that it seems natural to compare products from China to those from America, but you can't. It's not because the Chinese make an inferior product, it is because they don't tread the workers fairly. The safety laws are lax, the pay is ridiculous, the concern for the worker is non-existent and the profits are astronomical. We can not compete with a companies that are allowed to operate in this manner. Would you buy from an American company that followed this mode of operation? Why is it acceptable from a Chinese company then? It's not. Not to mention that it is hurting our economy.


________________________
Ron Paul in 2008!
Constitution > Politics

Personally, Neo-patriots, Ultra-patriots, Nationalists, Fanatics, or Zealots...no matter what wrapper you apply to them, I think they *need* to be dehumanized. Many of them aren't firing on all the synapses that makes a human a human--they're more like robots.

Still, if you're dealing with an all-encompassing entity rather than the individual contripbutors--you *have* to take the good and bad. If you take someone that was American and was a bastard (Joseph McCarthy comes to mind), you either, have to, as an American, realize that he, in the name of America, was a bastard, and be ashamed that America spawned off such a waste-of-space, and strive to be better than that, or you have to divide it further from being simply American, and say that being American doesn't enter into it--he was a bastard, but then you can't pidgeon-hole everyone else. Thus, you can't have it both ways; either people are individuals operating autonomously of whatever groupings you can group them in, or every grouping spawns some evil @!#$s, and those good people in said grouping should shun them.


Goodbye Callisto & Skaði, Hello Ishara:
2022 Kia Stinger GT2 AWD
The only thing every single person from every single walk of life on earth can truly say
they have in common is that their country is run by a bunch of fargin iceholes.

Mattel Recalls 800,000 more Lead-Tainted Toys. Maybe they should oversee their "subcontractors" better or they could send the jobs somewhere else that has a better standards of safety, like say, UNITED STATES of AMERICA, but then again they wouldn't be able to make a huge profit on every single toy they sell.