# China, poison, again! (RO? Maybe...)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 28, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793 "2007-05-28T16:26:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/1 "2007-05-28T16:26:48Z")
[Nicaragua seizes tainted toothpaste from China](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18899092/)
6,000 tubes suspected of containing deadly chemical used in antifreeze
[QUOTE=MSNBC]
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaraguan police seized 6,000 tubes of a Chinese-made toothpaste suspected of containing a chemical that killed at least 51 people in nearby Panama last year, the health minister said Sunday.
[/QUOTE]
I sense a trade embargo in the future if this keeps up. :mad: It seems to me that there is a pattern, and that it isn’t accidental. I doubt I am mistaken in this intuition either. There is too much “coincidence” in poisoned grain being exported, and now toothpaste. :dubious: I’ll be watching to see what other nations are doing with regards to this.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/2 "2007-05-28T16:35:41Z")
While I doubt it’s a conspiracy, I’ve been reading some more about some very nasty stuff coming out of China. No controls - it’s half state industry anyway, and no concern over consumer safety. Besides, who cares if the foreigners get hurt by it, right?
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/3 "2007-05-28T16:35:48Z")
Adding, even if it isn’t a deliberately underhanded way of harming other nations, it is still disregard for the health and safety of others, all for the sake of saving money in production costs! I still see a trade embargo on the horizon at this rate.
ETA: Exactly, **smiling bandit**!
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/4 "2007-05-28T19:37:29Z")
I really don’t see this as any kind of deliberate conspiracy. They want their trade surpluses much more than they want to damage “the foreigners” with tainted products.
It’s all about taking chances and cutting corners to save money. AFAICT, there is no more concern shown for the safety of manufactured products for domestic use than for exported ones.
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### Author:  [@Cryptoderk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cryptoderk)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/5 "2007-05-28T19:47:02Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane]
I sense a trade embargo in the future if this keeps up. :mad: It seems to me that there is a pattern, and that it isn’t accidental. I doubt I am mistaken in this intuition either. There is too much “coincidence” in poisoned grain being exported, and now toothpaste. :dubious: I’ll be watching to see what other nations are doing with regards to this.
[/QUOTE]
Are you out of your mind? What do you suggest? North Korea doing it to blackmail Bejing? China doing it to poision South Americans?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/6 "2007-05-28T20:06:08Z")
QA in Chinese-owned manufacturing is sometimes non-existent.
And there are some amoral sumbitches out there.
Think the OP’s story is bad? What about the motherfucker a few years ago who labelled up a bulk lot of [something like] flour marked up as baby formula. It ended up in the markets, and dozens of babies starved to death.
It isn’t a conspiracy, it’s just that China’s exporting a hell of a lot more stuff these days, and some of that stuff has compromised quality.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/7 "2007-05-28T21:06:02Z")
Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by cupidity. [Here’s](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402699.html) a case I heard about when I was in China. A business purchasing red blood cells and platelets was reinjecting the plasma back into the sellers. It’s a fairly common practice, done in the states for red blood cell donors as well.
A major difference in China is that the for profit business running the operation commingled all of the plasma in a vat and divided it up among the sellers. It ended up causing an HIV/AIDS crisis in Henan Province. It was made worse by denial on the part of the authorities, who believed that AIDS was only carried by foreigners.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/8 "2007-05-29T00:38:34Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk]
Are you out of your mind? What do you suggest? North Korea doing it to blackmail Bejing? China doing it to poision South Americans?
[/QUOTE]
See post number 3.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/9 "2007-05-29T00:42:44Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm]
It isn’t a conspiracy, it’s just that China’s exporting a hell of a lot more stuff these days, and some of that stuff has compromised quality.
[/QUOTE]
I can still see several countries refusing Chinese exports until China puts some (enforced, up to certain standards set by the U.N. or whatever body would properly have say) quality control measures in place.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/10 "2007-05-29T14:40:56Z")
Here is a story that seems to indicate that China is starting to take these problems seriously.
[China sentences ex-top drug regulator to death](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070529.wchinadrugs0529/BNStory/International/home).
> [@](#):
>
> China’s former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicines, as the country’s main quality control agency announced its first recall system for unsafe food products.
I said in a thread about the pet food scandal that I expect that someone will get executed for it, and this tells me that is a real possibility. China does not like corruption, or things that threaten their economy.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/11 "2007-05-29T14:44:09Z")
[QUOTE=adam yax]
I said in a thread about the pet food scandal that I expect that someone will get executed for it, and this tells me that is a real possibility. China does not like corruption, or things that threaten their economy.
[/QUOTE]
Now if they could be motivated (by the idea of lack of income if they don’t) to care about the well being of their citizens that’d be even nicer…
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/12 "2007-05-29T14:52:17Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane]
Now if they could be motivated (by the idea of lack of income if they don’t) to care about the well being of their citizens that’d be even nicer…
[/QUOTE]
Baby steps.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/13 "2007-05-29T14:56:11Z")
[QUOTE=adam yax]
Baby steps.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I know. _sigh_ Still burns me up how little regard those companies (and by a history of lack of legislation, the Government) have for their people.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/14 "2007-05-29T21:31:25Z")
This has been a big story here too, where some company illegally brought the toothpaste into the country and there’s a massive recall going on.
I for one would not use any toiletry or food coming out of China (and a bunch of other countries too). Sorry, too much of that going on. This is a third world country and as far as I recall we have never had any of that, so it’s not that hard to not poison people.
I’ll buy their plastic trinkets though.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/15 "2007-05-30T22:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=Mighty\_Girl]
This has been a big story here too, where some company illegally brought the toothpaste into the country and there’s a massive recall going on.
[/QUOTE]
What country is “here”, **Mighty\_Girl**? 😕
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/16 "2007-05-30T23:08:26Z")
About two years ago, there was a big scare here in relation to kimchi imported from China, something about tainted vegetables. People all over the country decided they would go back to making their own kimchi at home. Odd thing, though, is the vegetables they used were imported from China!
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/17 "2007-05-30T23:19:57Z")
Ack! :smack: Did anyone get sick from it, **Monty**?
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/18 "2007-05-30T23:56:34Z")
[QUOTE=Mighty\_Girl]
This has been a big story here too, where some company illegally brought the toothpaste into the country and there’s a massive recall going on.
I for one would not use any toiletry or food coming out of China (and a bunch of other countries too). Sorry, too much of that going on. This is a third world country and as far as I recall we have never had any of that, so it’s not that hard to not poison people.
[/QUOTE]
The problem is you don’t know. The dog food no doubt said it was made in the USA.
As for the Chinese government, their first reaction always seems to be that they didn’t do it, and their second that people are acting inappropriately to question the quality of Chinese goods. Only when there is a threat of losing foreign currency do they act. If they cared about improving the situation, they would have let the papers cover it. The NY Times reported multiple cases of Chinese people dying because of this crap - not that the government seemed to care.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2007, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/19 "2007-05-31T03:56:52Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane]
What country is “here”, **Mighty\_Girl**? 😕
[/QUOTE]
:smack:
Dominican Republic. Sorry, I always forget that some people don’t know we are the center of the universe. 😉
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-poison-again-ro-maybe/405793/20 "2007-06-02T00:39:07Z")
[Tainted toothpaste shows up in US.](http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/06/01/hscout605194.html)
> [@](#):
>
> U.S. health officials warned consumers Friday not to use toothpaste made in China because it may be contaminated with a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze and as a solvent.
>
> “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has placed an import ban on all toothpaste from China,” Deborah M. Autor, director of the FDA’s Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told reporters at an afternoon briefing.
>
> “The companies will have to prove that their products don’t contain harmful levels of DEG (diethylene glycol) before it is allowed into the United States,” she added.
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