The NY times has a report this morning about China exporting diethylene glycol
marked as 99.5% glycerine:
http://www.nytimes. com/2007/ 05/06/world/ americas/ 06poison.
html?hp=&pagewanted=all
or http://www.iht. com/articles/ 2007/05/05/ news/06poison. php
The "glycerine" is mixed into cough syrups and other liquid pharmaceuticals,
and when ingested ...
"The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire.
Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without
assistance. In the end, most victims die."
This substitution has been made as early as the 1930s, when poisonings from
diethylene glycol prompted the formation of the FDA. More recently, mass
poisonings with fatalities in the hundreds to many thousands have resulted in
China, Panama, Bangladesh, India, Haiti, Argentina, and Nigeria. Nobody has
been prosecuted because the manufacturers are not licensed to sell pharma-grade
product, and do not claim that the product is pharma-grade ... only 99.5% pure.
Thus, no laws have been broken.
This is one of the scariest, unbelievable pieces I've come across in a long
time. And not to be complacent, the diethylene glycol came very close to making
it into U.S. product.
You owe it to yourself to read this entire article, if you want to be informed
of the utter ineptitude, ignorance, and deception at all levels of marketing
and regulation - starting from a small production shop in China, all the way to
the FDA and agencies in other countries. And what is so disturbing, is that
nobody seems to be able to put a stop to these practices.
A few days ago, a question to a person from an herb & supplement company about
vitamins, revealed that a very large proportion of vitamins are now
manufactured in China. It seems prudent for everyone's safety, to make careful
enquiries about the source of products being purchased, and the source of
materials in that product. Start letting every supplier of goods know that you
are concerned.
An ordinary bottle of over-the-counter cough syrup could kill you. What if you
had been traveling in Panama last year and needed some? And the cough syrup
was manufactured by the Panamanian government, not knowing the supposed
"glycerin" going into it was actually diethylene glycol, and totally unaware
where the stuff really came from!!
Unbelievable. Scary. Please inform your other health groups.
Char
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