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Author Topic: Toxic Products from China identified in Australia  (Read 2669 times)
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Tibrogargan
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« on: June 10, 2007, 11:22:18 PM »

Here are some articles I have sourced in the past few days to do with Chinese products containing toxic chemicals.  Although they apply to Australia I feel all countries need to consider the danger in any product from China or nearby.
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Tibrogargan
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« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2007, 11:27:21 PM »

Toxic scare sparks blanket ban

Sydney Morning Herald
Kelly Burke ….Consumer Affairs Reporter……May 29, 2007

AN AUSTRALIAN textile importer has voluntarily impounded a large consignment of blankets as an investigation ordered by the Federal Government begins into dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals in Chinese imports.
The Herald understands that Sheridan's wholesale arm, Actil Commercial, has quarantined eight container loads of blankets that arrived from China last week, following reports that the Australian Wool Testing Authority had found levels of formaldehyde almost 10 times higher than upper safety limits in many other countries.
Late last week David Jones demanded test reports from its suppliers of bedding textiles imported from China, while the fashion group Sussan, which includes the brands Sportsgirl and Suzanne Grae, commissioned an independent report on formaldehyde levels in its clothing range made in China. Neither company has returned the Herald's calls.
Sheridan removed all products suspected of contamination from its shelves last week and commissioned an analysis of the blankets by the CSIRO and another testing laboratory in China.
Sheridan received the results of those tests yesterday but the company's general manager, Pauline Whitehead, said further advice would have to be sought before going public with the findings because they were "inconclusive and extremely inconsistent".
Ms Whitehead did say the CSIRO analysis placed the level of formaldehyde content at almost double that of the equivalent Chinese analysis, although both sets of tests revealed lower levels than that found by the wool testing authority. "There will be no further product going on to the market one way or another until such time as we know what's going on," she said.
However, some suspect products were more than likely still being sold, Ms Whitehead warned, because the Chinese textile exporter involved, a company called High Hope, supplied to other undisclosed Australian companies as well as Sheridan.
The original test found that Sheridan's "Indulgence" blanket contained 2790 parts per million formaldehyde. In the US, Europe, and Japan, the safety standard is set at 330 parts per million.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Consumer Affairs, Chris Pearce, said the Government investigation was being "urgently pursued" by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Australian Customs and the Department of Health.

My note :  There is a current article stating the products remain on the retail store shelves, but it has been copyrighted.
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Tibrogargan
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« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2007, 11:35:47 PM »

This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

TGA considers regulating toothpaste   

The World Today - Wednesday, 30 May , 2007  12:33:00Reporter: Tanya Nolan

ELEANOR HALL: The former head of food and drug regulation in China has been sentenced to death for his role in a corruption scandal which has fuelled international concern about the safety of Chinese products. And the discovery of deadly toxins in two brands of Chinese toothpaste has prompted a worldwide alert and in Australia added to calls for tougher monitoring of imported goods. Some retailers in northern New South Wales and an online supplier have sold the toothpaste, which contains a chemical linked to the deaths of 300 people in Panama. But in Australia toothpaste is not usually monitored by either Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration, or the Quarantine Inspection Service. As Tanya Nolan reports, though, the Therapeutic Goods Administration is now considering regulating the toxic chemical.

TANYA NOLAN: The Farmer Charlie's supermarket chain says one of its managers happened to be reading the international press about a week ago, when he came across an article that sparked this toothpaste scare in Australia. The article told of 300 people in Panama who consumed a cough syrup produced by the same Chinese manufacturer that makes the Excel toothpaste the manager stocked on his supermarket shelves. A closer look revealed the industrial chemical di-ethylene-glycol, typically used as a solvent and a coolant, was responsible for the deaths. It was then discovered that that same chemical, albeit at much lower levels, was contained in the toothpaste. It was at this point Australia's regulatory loophole became apparent. A call to the Therapeutic Goods Administration revealed that because toothpaste isn't considered a food or a drug, there are no checks done on its ingredients. Doctor Cathy Mead, is the President of the Public Health Association of Australia and she says there needs to be a rethink.

CATHY MEAD: We have a strong regulatory system for food. We have a strong regulatory system for drugs but there are some products that we ingest, whether intentionally or not intentionally, that fall in the gap, and toothpaste and perhaps some other cosmetics, come into that category. We know children ingest their toothpaste more than adults, and so that perhaps gives us a different, you know, a special level of concern. But it perhaps would be worth considering whether products like that should come under some form of regulation, perhaps appropriately with the Therapeutic Goods Administration rather than as a food.

TANYA NOLAN: While Dr Mead is particularly concerned about products ingested by humans, another product that has consumers worried is textiles. It's been revealed that a shipment of blankets, also from China, contained dangerously high levels of formaldehyde, which can be toxic to humans. The retailers of the blankets and the toothpaste have voluntarily quarantined these potentially toxic products from consumers, but there's been no official government recall because the products fall outside the state and federal regulatory structures. However, in light of the toothpaste saga, the TGA today announced that it will look at possibly regulating the use of the industrial chemical di-ethylene-glycol for human consumption. Dr Cathy Mead says governments may now need to follow with tougher laws.

CATHY MEAD: I don't think the TGA at present has a brief to step in and perhaps, you know, that's a broader issue of policy for the States and Commonwealth to consider about whether products like this need a regulatory regime and then whether TGA is the appropriate body to do that. I think perhaps that, you know, the beginning is to look at what are the range of products that fall into this category and what are the potential risks from such products and this is an example of a potential risk, as we import more and are perhaps less aware of what might be regular practice in other countries.

TANYA NOLAN: The Parliamentary Secretary for Consumer Affairs says the States were asked last year to support a unilateral approach to consumer affairs. Chris Pearce's office says of the 111 bans on consumer products, 80 per cent apply in just two jurisdictions in Australia. The States and Territories have rejected the Commonwealth offer but have agreed to draft uniform laws. Adding to the concern surrounding these imported Chinese products has been the revelations of the corrupted regulation of China's own food and drug administration. The former head of the country's state food and drug administration was last night sentenced to death for accepting bribes to approve hundreds of drugs, some of which have led to the deaths of patients in China. The Chinese Government has been under increasing pressure to tighten its regulations of locally made foods and medicines after a series of serious incidents. Thirteen babies in China died after being fed bogus baby formula, and the US has blamed ingredients in pet food imported from China for the deaths of cats and dogs. China has now announced its first ever system of recall for food products deemed unsafe for consumption.

ELEANOR HALL: Tanya Nolan reporting.
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« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2007, 11:41:07 PM »

China takes on toxic industry

By Mary-Anne Toy, Beijing ....February 8, 2006

CHINA'S top environmental watchdog is demanding immediate reporting of pollution accidents to avoid a repeat of the disastrous toxic spill on the Songhua River.

The State Environmental Protection Administration said it had received 45 accident reports, mostly water pollution, since last November when an explosion in a chemical plant on the Songhua killed five people.
The accident dumped 100 tonnes of carcinogens into the river, shutting mains water supplies to one of China's biggest cities for more than four days.

The cover-up of the accident — which created an 80- kilometre-long toxic slick that travelled through two provinces and across into Russia's Amur River — triggered domestic and international condemnation.
But the spill has sparked hopes that the central Government may now be forced to get serious about an appalling environmental record

A statement on the environment agency's website highlighted six of the worst accidents of the 45 reported to February 1. All involved rivers. These included a smelting factory in southern Guangdong province leaking cadmium into the Beijiang River, a petrochemical plant leaking phenol into the Hun River in Liaoning province for five days over Christmas, and a power plant in Henan province spilling diesel oil into the Yellow River.

The State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, said company or department safety officials would be required to report accidents to the relevant local government authority within an hour, investigations should begin immediately and serious cases should be reported directly to the state council or SEPA. Local governments would also be required to notify neighbouring areas.

The explosion at a state-owned petrochemical plant on the section of the Songhua River in Jilian province occurred on November 13. But the Jilin authorities failed to tell neighbouring Heilongjiang province about the spill for several days — until it became clear that it was headed to the provincial capital, Harbin.

It took 10 days for the first public acknowledgement of a serious accident. Harbin authorities initially claimed the mains water was turned off for maintenance but they were forced to come clean amid growing panic among the 4 million residents. The head of SEPA was forced to resign. A preliminary national audit ordered by his successor, Zhou Shengxian, revealed that half of the country's 21,000 chemical plants are located along major rivers, many had no environment impact assessments and were built in residential areas.

Yu Xiao Gang, director of the environmental group Green Water Shed, based in Kunming in the south-western province of Yunnan, said yesterday that the watchdog's tougher line was heartening as the environmental toll from uncontrolled development threatened to destroy social order. "The serious actions taken by SEPA indicate that the Government finally has a certain confidence and resolution to do this (protect the environment)," Mr Yu said.
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« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2007, 11:12:00 PM »

China to act on products

    * Rowan Callick, China correspondent
    * June 07, 2007

THE Chinese Government launched a campaign yesterday to rehabilitate the quality and reputation of its drugs and food products.

In recent weeks, China has suffered a wave of adverse publicity over deadly fake goods, including mass poisonings in Panama caused by the substitution of a toxic chemical for a cough syrup, the deaths of pets in North America due to the chemical melamine in canned food and toxic substances found in toothpaste, including some exported to Australia.

Within China, the most prominent victims in the past two or three years have been dozens of children in Anhui province, who died from a cheap version of baby-milk formula.

China's first response was to order the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, charged with pocketing about $1 million in bribes to approve the manufacture of new drugs, and with dereliction of duty.

His wife and son, who are also being prosecuted, established drug-making businesses.

Now the Government, anxious about the threat both to its own citizens and to "Brand China" as the world's manufacturing hub, has announced a five-year plan to clean up the drug and food industries. It says: "Ensuring food and pharmaceutical safety for the public must be the starting point and destination of all work. Illegal activities behind the production and sale of fake and shoddy foods and pharmaceuticals will be effectively contained."

This will involve increasing the inspection of such products during both manufacture and export and reducing the chemicals involved in growing food.

The extent of concern within China was demonstrated in a survey conducted by news agency Xinhua, which found that 92 per cent of respondents were very worried about food safety and 78 per cent said supervision was inadequate.

On Tuesday, Zhang Lijun, vice-minister at the State Environmental Protection Administration, conceded that "the standards for ammonia and nitrate discharge are not strict enough, in my view".
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....And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars..  A.B (Banjo) Paterson
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