Just a PR Move or Real Change in China?
Posted on July 26, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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It’s too soon to tell. But CNN reports that a new food safety team is being formed by top Chinese government officials to tackle the nation’s safety and quality problems. The recent scandals involving poison ingredients in pet food, deadly chemicals in cough medicine, antibiotics in seafood, and more, have damaged China’s reputation with consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world.
China faces even greater food quality issues at home. It has been widely reported that in a recent study 20% of China’s food products intended for domestic consumption were found to be unsafe.
Popularity: 30% [?]
Next Time Let’s Sting the Food & Drug Counterfeiters
Posted on July 25, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Today the New York Times reported that a joint sting operation by the FBI and the Chinese government has led to the bust of a sophisticated software piracy outfit in China. Hundreds of millions of dollars in counterfeit Microsoft software were seized and 25 people were arrested.
David Finn, an associate general counsel at Microsoft, credits consumer involvement in helping to shut down the operation.
Popularity: 36% [?]
Something China is Doing Right
Posted on July 19, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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The New York Times travel section recently ran an article about Wulingyuan National Park in China, designated by UNESCO as a GeoPark, and although this doesn’t appear to be immediately germane to the topic of this blog, I think it proves a very important point: The Chinese government does have the capability to manage an incredible natural resource with care and responsibility. They can choose to be good stewards if they want to.
Although regulating the many renegade manufacturing companies in China is a much more complicated undertaking, surely the Chinese government can bring about reform if sufficiently motivated to do so. This will require pressure from their biggest customers — the U.S. American manufacturers need to place greater scrutiny on their operations and suppliers in China and the U.S. government must strengthen the agencies designed to protect us from harmful products. If China’s economy starts losing some of its boom, significant reforms will quickly follow.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Dangerous Drugs Lead to More Than One Death Sentence
Posted on July 18, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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According to the New York Times, Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China’s equivalent of the FDA who was recently executed for accepting bribes and allowing dangerous products to enter the Chinese marketplace, started out as a reformer but succumbed to temptation and accepted money and gifts from unethical manufacturers seeking a way around safety regulations. Many of his staff have been implicated as well, and even his wife and son were involved in soliciting bribes.
Zheng Xiaoyu’s execution raises many moral questions — from a distance. For families in China whose loved ones are forever lost and whose lives are damaged because of his misdeeds, there seems to be more clarity. The New York Times reports:
Popularity: 25% [?]
Don’t Order the Fish
Posted on July 17, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Unless you don’t mind eating decayed flesh, carbon monoxide, mercury, antibiotics, feces and God knows what else along with it.
The New York Times today reported on testimony before a House subcommittee elaborating how weak the FDA is, and how it may get even weaker. The FDA currently only inspects about 1% of the food imports coming into the U.S., and actually conducts tests on about half of that 1%. Seven of the agency’s 13 labs are scheduled to be shut down. (Rep. John Dingell D-MI, has managed to put a temporary hold on this.) Meanwhile, importers have found a way around the miniscule chance they have of getting caught by the FDA. According to the article:
Popularity: 25% [?]
Get Your Mojo Working
Posted on July 16, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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At its core this blog is about where the responsibility for safety lies. It lies with the federal government and the agencies designed to protect us from dangers we are not individually equipped to protect ourselves from. It lies with companies who provide goods — they must be held to a high standard and do the right thing for their customers. And finally it lies with the consumer – yes, you and me. We have to take individual responsibility for the choices we make – the foods we feed ourselves and our families, the products we buy, and how active and informed we are as citizens and consumers.
Popularity: 31% [?]
New Labor Reforms in China Despite American Efforts
Posted on July 14, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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The New York Times reports that labor reforms have passed in China despite strong opposition by American companies.
While the new law will do little to eliminate violations of existing laws, it does require that employers treat migrant workers as they do other employees. All employees will have to have written employment contracts that comply with minimum wage and safety regulations.
It also moves China closer to European-style labor regulations that emphasize fixed- and open-term employment contracts enforceable by law. It requires that employees with short-term contracts become full-time employees with lifetime benefits after a short-term contract is renewed twice.
Perhaps most significantly, it gives the state-run union and other employee representative groups the power to bargain with employers.
Popularity: 17% [?]
You Get What You Pay For
Posted on July 13, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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In the midst of a slew of stories of product recalls and dangerous goods coming from China, USA Today reports that China’s trade surplus is at an all time high. The imports are pouring in faster than ever and the safety checks are not keeping pace, yet we continue to buy. And the reason, naturally, is because the goods coming from China are cheap. China is cornering the market on drugs, electronics, food ingredients, and all manner of things by undercutting the rest of the world in price. There are costs, of course, that someone pays sooner or later. Right now it’s the workers in China who are making $2 a day (or nothing, if they have been forced into slave labor). And eventually it is the whole human race and every other creature on this earth because pollution is going unchecked in China as that country pursues economic growth at any cost.
Popularity: 36% [?]
More Deadly Magnetic Toys
Posted on July 12, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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More than a year after the first recall of Magnetix toys which came about as the result of the death of 22-month old Kenny Sweet of Washington and serious internal injuries to dozens of other children, Mag Stix toys were (and probably still are at this writing) available on store shelves. Mag Stix are very similar to Magnetix in concept — a building set that uses small magnets in the components to attach them together. So why weren’t Mag Stix immediately removed from store shelves after Magnetix were found to be so dangerous? Why did an 8-year old girl recently have to undergo major surgery to repair serious internal injuries caused by Mag Stix??
Popularity: 23% [?]
Support Senator Schumer!
Posted on July 11, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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There are a few people in Washington who want to take action now to stem the tide of deadly products and make us safer. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is one of them.
What follows is an excerpt of Sen. Schumer’s press release from July 1, 2007. (Read the full text here.) Please tell your representatives in Congress that you support Sen. Schumer’s proposed measures with regard to imports from China.
Popularity: 26% [?]
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