F.D.A. Tracked Tainted Drugs, but Trail Went Cold in China

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

After a drug ingredient from China killed dozens of Haitian children a decade ago, a senior American health official sent a cable to her investigators: find out who made the poisonous ingredient and why a state-owned company in China exported it as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin.

The Chinese were of little help. Requests to find the manufacturer were ignored. Business records were withheld or destroyed.

The Americans had reason for alarm. “The U.S. imports a lot of Chinese glycerin and it is used in ingested products such as toothpaste,” Mary K. Pendergast, then deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, wrote on Oct. 27, 1997. Learning how diethylene glycol, a syrupy poison used in some antifreeze, ended up in Haitian fever medicine might “prevent this tragedy from happening again,” she wrote.

The F.D.A.’s mission ultimately failed. By the time an F.D.A. agent visited the suspected manufacturer, the plant was shut down and Chinese companies said they bore no responsibility for the mass poisoning.

Ten years later it happened again, this time in Panama. Chinese-made diethylene glycol, masquerading as its more expensive chemical cousin glycerin, was mixed into medicine, killing at least 100 people there last year. And recently, Chinese toothpaste containing diethylene glycol was found in the United States and seven other countries, prompting tens of thousands of tubes to be recalled.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/health/17poison.html?...

[Deja Q]

1. In a globalized world, everyone has their responsibility.

How come China isn't doing its part?

[kurth]

3. The whole world has given China a free pass for too long

It's time to hold them accountable.

[rodeodance]

6. anything for free trade!

[kurth]

2. "For months, parents gave it to children, then watched them die, in agony, from kidney failure"

Goddamned bastards - a bullet to the head is too good for them.

[NYC]

4. Recommend this thread.

People need to rebel.

[bonito]

5. That toothpaste is being supplied in our hospitals!

I posted about this earlier.

[kath]

8. whoa, say WHAT?!

I tried to search for your post on this, but no luck. Info please?

[bonito]

10. Tri leaf spearmint toothpaste

ingredients calcium carbonate,water,Sorbitol,Glycerin, Sodium lauryl sulfate,

Distributor:AMSINO International INC. Toll free 1800-63- AMSINO

Product of China

It has swallowing warnings on it as well is it bad stuff I don't know but it comes from China and has Glycerin and yes used in hospitals in patient rooms where I got it.

[LiberalFighter]

7. China should have their trade 100% restricted

I wish we would boycott the 2008 Olympics but it will be before the election.

[kath]

9. Life is cheap in China.

This has been true for a long time, and it appears not to have changed...

Human life is not valued at ALL (unless you're part of the governing elite, I guess)