Five Things About Me Today

I am listening to this book today and it is wonderful:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I am reading this book today and it is also wonderful:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

I fell off my bike like a goony bird today but kept riding another ten miles even though my wrist hurt because I Am Such a Jock.

My poor tooth got drilled on for a couple of hours in prep for a crown today.

And despite it all, I feel like I had a great day.

How about you?

“From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine”

So I feel a little paranoid about all this China stuff. It’s not like I hate the Chinese people. And truth to tell, this is about huge corporate powers and evil people making evil decisions, and those people making those decisions could be anywhere.

But still. It’s China. Again.

In the New York Times today:

Counterfeit glycerin. In cough syrup. That people give to their children. And hundreds died in Panama. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Forty-six barrels of the toxic syrup arrived via a poison pipeline stretching halfway around the world. Through shipping records and interviews with government officials, The New York Times traced this pipeline from the Panamanian port of Colón, back through trading companies in Barcelona, Spain, and Beijing, to its beginning near the Yangtze Delta in a place local people call “chemical country.”

The counterfeit glycerin passed through three trading companies on three continents, yet not one of them tested the syrup to confirm what was on the label. Along the way, a certificate falsely attesting to the purity of the shipment was repeatedly altered, eliminating the name of the manufacturer and previous owner. As a result, traders bought the syrup without knowing where it came from, or who made it. With this information, the traders might have discovered — as The Times did — that the manufacturer was not certified to make pharmaceutical ingredients.

An examination of the two poisoning cases last year — in Panama and earlier in China — shows how China’s safety regulations have lagged behind its growing role as low-cost supplier to the world. It also demonstrates how a poorly policed chain of traders in country after country allows counterfeit medicine to contaminate the global market.

And we think it’s a good thing to send manufacturing outside of the US?

Jesus wept.

Recent NYT articles are enough to send me screaming into traffic.

Reforming the F.D.A.
Published: May 3, 2007
A bill headed for a vote in the Senate would usher in much needed reforms at the Food and Drug Administration. But it also risks making the agency even more dependent on funds from the industry it regulates.

Well, you know, we have to cut spending (and taxes) and letting the industry pay fees to the FDA seems like a good idea, right? Oh, well, yes, there are private meetings where they throw their weight around and influence what the FDA can and cannot and will and won’t do, but what can that hurt? Just read it. You won’t believe me if you don’t.

Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China
By DAVID BARBOZA and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: April 30, 2007
ZHANGQIU, China, April 28 — As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.

Because it shows up in tests as “protein” even though it isn’t. It’s melamine. It’s poison. And China doesn’t regulate stuff like that. But it’s cheaper than manufacutring here in the US, you know? And bottom line is everything. Lowering prices is good for all of us! Isn’t it?

Human Risk Played Down in Bad Feed
By SARAH ABRUZZESE
Published: April 27, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 26 — The potential risk to humans who might have eaten meat contaminated with melamine is extremely low, and the Food and Drug Administration believes that only 6,000 hogs may have eaten the reconstituted feed.

And only 345 got into the human food chain, so everything is okay. (That they’re admitting right now.) I mean, no need to panic. No need to worry. The FDA has everything under control. “50 from a custom slaughterhouse in California that cannot be sold in retail, 195 from a farm in Kansas that were sent to a facility in Nebraska, and no more than 100 hogs from the processing plant in Utah, said Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for the department. “

I feel better already! (Call me a cynic. Call me unpatriotic. Call me anything, but keep your eyes open. I have a feeling we’ll hear more about this.)

U.S. Investigators Visiting Pet Food Makers
By ANDREW MARTIN and IAN AUSTEN
Published: May 4, 2007
Federal investigators have begun visiting food and pet food makers that use vegetable protein concentrates imported from China to make sure that the additives are not contaminated, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.

Well at least the overworked and underfunded FDA is getting out there in the field and doing something about it. (But it does make one wonder what is getting shoved to the back burner in order to free up the personnel. And ignore the “industry funders” behind the curtain. They mean no harm.)

Don’t mind me.

I’m just that unpatriotic, cynical shit weasel from Dallas who hates freedom.

God help us all.