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

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?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

How come China isn't doing its part?

It's time to hold them accountable.

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

People need to rebel.

I posted about this earlier.

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

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.

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

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)