Food Safety Official Sentenced To Death
Updated Consumer Warning as of approximately 4:45PM Eastern Time on June 1, 2007:
The U.S. government has issued a warning to consumers. Avoid all toothpaste made in China. It may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze called diethylene glycol, or DEG.
If you own toothpaste that is labelled as made in China, throw it away. Chinese toothpaste is most often sold at bargain stores.
According to the FDA news release, here are at least some of the brands that the warning applies to: Cooldent Fluoride; Cooldent Spearmint; Cooldent ICE; Dr. Cool, Everfresh Toothpaste; Superdent Toothpaste; Clean Rite Toothpaste; Oralmax Extreme; Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor; Bright Max Peppermint Flavor; ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste; DentaPro; DentaKleen; and DentaKleen Junior.
The entire FDA News Release can be found at:
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01646.html
Original post below:
Tainted pet food killed or sickened many dogs and cats in the U.S. earlier this year. The lethal ingredient was wheat flour contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in plastics.
The FDA traced the source of this contamination to 2 companies in China.
Now there’s growing concern that the problem has moved beyond pet food. To imported products used by humans.
At least one man has been sentenced to die.
Inspections Can Only Do So Much
The FDA can’t inspect all imported food. The volume is so great, it wouldn’t be practical.
In March, the FDA stopped over 200 shipments of food from China. Oranges, dates, and plums all contained unsafe ingredients. There were other problems, too.
Last week, the FDA ordered that Chinese imports of toothpaste be tested for safety before entering the U.S.
Diethylene glycol, a dangerous chemical, has already been discovered in Chinese toothpaste in other countries.
The Chinese Response
China is adopting a food-recall system to deal with this problem. They want to restore confidence in their products at home and abroad.
They’ve also taken a more dramatic action.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court has sentenced Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, to death.
Technically, Zheng was convicted of taking at least $850,000 in bribes from 8 drug companies.
He was sentenced to death due to the bribes and the damage to the country caused by his dereliction of duty.
But it doesn’t take a political analyst to see that China is sending a message.
China has also had safety problems with its drugs.
Does This Man Deserve To Die?
It’s not unusual for a Chinese official convicted of corruption to get a death sentence.
By U.S. standards, that seems harsh.
But I can’t help but think of all the people and pets who suffered or even died because Zheng and others allowed contaminated ingredients to go into food and drugs.
Just so they could line their pockets with cash and other gifts.
Is this really any different than if Zheng had put the poison in the food and drugs himself? We’d consider that to be murder in the U.S. Possibly punishable by death.
So what do you think?
Does this man deserve to die?
Technorati Tags: pet food recall, melamine, food safety, FDA, China
June 1st, 2007 at 11:11 am
Murder is murder. I don’t feel sorry for the guy.
June 1st, 2007 at 11:18 am
He should be punished, but I don’t believe in the death penalty. As cyberalex said, murder is murder, including when you use the death penalty. That would make us as bad as him.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Eye for an eye. He helped to kill pets and people.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I agree with Rita. He should be punished but not the death penalty. Life in prison if he’s responsible for other people’s deaths. Anything else is wrong.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Whether he gets the death penalty or not, how is the FDA going to be sure our food system is safe? This looks like a show by the Chinese to make people think they’ve taken care of the problem, but what’s changed when you really think about it?
June 1st, 2007 at 5:42 pm
[…] At least one Chineese official has been found guilty of accepting bribes in the matter and has executed. Whether he deseres it or not is unappearant as the only information that comes out of China, is the information China wants to come out. But according to sources, his lack of judgement resulted in the death of at least ten people due to his approval of an antibiotic. […]
June 1st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
The US keeps digging itself even deeper into the dependency on Chineese products due to our demand for a low-cost alternative. How sad it is. Their quality is getting even worse due to our own need.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
I’m more worried about what other foods and stuff are coming into our country that might be bad. If the FDA can’t inspect all this stuff, how can they be sure we’re safe?
June 1st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Killing the guy isn’t doing much for our safety. Did they say what brand names are poisoned or is just off-name toothpastes sold in the bargin bin?
June 1st, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Thanks for the warning. I never thought to check my toothpaste to see if it was made in China.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Rob,
Here are some of the brands that are part of the warning according to the FDA news release:
Cooldent Fluoride; Cooldent Spearmint; Cooldent ICE; Dr. Cool, Everfresh Toothpaste; Superdent Toothpaste; Clean Rite Toothpaste; Oralmax Extreme; Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor; Bright Max Peppermint Flavor; ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste; DentaPro; DentaKleen; and DentaKleen Junior.
In case this isn’t all of them, check the labelling on your toothpaste for a made in China designation. You could contact the FDA for more information or check their website.
The FDA news release is here:
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01646.html
June 1st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I’m usually a lurker, but I can’t believe how you kept up on this so fast. Thanks for the warning. I saw it here before the news.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:42 pm
It’s hard to want anyone to be killed, though heads of cigarette companies may change my view.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:04 pm
I don’t want anyone to be killed either, but the people who make these products don’t seem to care who gets hurt or killed. All they want is money. There has to be a way to stop this.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:36 pm
How do we know the FDA stopped all the bad oranges and other fruit that had safety problems? They need a better way to inspect food and other products if there’s a problem with Chinese imports. I’m not sure how I feel about the death penalty for that Chinese guy Zheng. If he’s allowing an antifreeze ingredient in our toothpaste and killing pets and possibly people with food and other stuff, maybe he does deserve it. I mean how would any of us feel if it was our pet or someone we loved who died? I don’t really believe in the death penalty, but this isn’t something that should be given a slap on the wrist, either.
June 1st, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I checked my toothpaste and I’m safe (I think). But I don’t have any sympathy for these big corporate moneymaking guys who don’t care about anyone but themselves. I don’t know if I could vote to put someone to death if I was on a jury, but I won’t lose any sleep if these guys get the death penalty. Do they ever think about the people they hurt?
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:06 am
I’m against the death penalty, too, life in prison would be fair for someone who’s put so many other people’s lives in dangers. A lot of people lost dogs and cats who were like family members, too.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I usually lurk, but like most of the others I don’t think it’s right to answer murder with another murder. If people have died, then life in prison is what he deserves. Thanks for the toothpaste warning.
June 4th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I read about this on the news. It resulted in death, so I would guess that it is murder.