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(BEIJING) - Growing numbers of Chinese children are being born with deformities due to pollution, later pregnancies and unhealthy lifestyles, state media said on Thursday quoting a medical expert. About 1 million Chinese children were born each year with congenital heart problems, cleft palettes, nerve defects, limb abnormalities and other physical defects, director of China's National Centre for Maternity and Infant Health, Li Zhu, told the China Daily. The number of such congenital deformities was rising and the current occurrence rate of 60 out of every 1,000 births was three times that of developed countries, Li said. Chinese parents, especially...

(BEIJING) - Think a bottle of mineral water might have poisoned you? Then test it on a chicken. One Chinese family on the southern island province of Hainan had just that idea when one of their number started vomiting blood after drinking a bottle of water, a newspaper said. They fed the luckless chicken the rest of the water to see what would happen, the Beijing News said, citing a report in a local paper. "The result was the chicken died within a minute," it said, showing a picture of a man holding a plastic bottle squatting over the crumpled...

U.S. companies rushed to China and other developing countries to produce low-cost goods for price-conscious U.S. consumers, saving money through lower overseas labor and material costs. Now they are paying the price in "the year of the recall." Retailers and manufacturers are reeling from major recalls of Chinese-made goods this year, from tires to seafood to toothpaste to toys. In the latest recall, Mattel Inc. said last week it was recalling several hundred thousand toys worldwide, including Barbie doll accessories and Fisher-Price toys, because of high lead levels. It was the third recall by the toy maker in recent weeks....

(SHANGHAI) - ......But the question remains: Why is lead paint - or lead for that matter - turning up in so many recalls involving goods made in China? The simplest answer, experts and toy companies here say, is price. Paint with higher levels of lead often costs a third as much as paint with low levels of lead. So Chinese factory owners, trying to eke out a profit in an intensely competitive but poorly regulated market, sometimes cut corners and use the cheaper paint. On the books, China's paint standards are stricter than those in the United States, requiring that...

Test-drive a Nissan, win a lead-laced mug Fri Sep 7, 2007 4:24PM EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese merchandise took a fresh knock Friday when car maker Nissan said it was recalling tens of thousands of mugs it gave away in Japan because the paint contains excessive lead. It said it took the action after a hapless car-shopper fell ill after drinking from one of the mugs and complained. Nissan Motor said the cups, which it was giving to anyone who test-drove one of its cars in Japan during a sales initiative that started on August 16, had a lead content...

US and Chinese officials recently met in Beijing for agricultural trade talks. However, the two parties failed to agree with issues regarding poultry trade. China's zero-tolerance for salmonella in raw poultry was discussed in length. "How can you produce poultry without traces of salmonella? It's killed when you cook it," said USDA's Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Mark Keenum, who led the US delegation. As for China, "They simply reaffirmed their position," he stated. On the other hand, Keenum said that the USDA is working to produce rules that would allow China to export cooked chicken products to...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's blood supply is still not being properly monitored for HIV/AIDS a decade after a blood-selling scandal, and it needs international help to tackle the problem, a report said on Thursday. The government has tried to clean up the sector after hundreds of thousands of farmers in central Henan province were infected in the 1990s through schemes in which people sold blood to unsanitary, often state-run health clinics. Then-Health Minister Gao Qiang admitted in a speech earlier this summer that China's blood donation system was far from perfect and safety worries remained. "The demand for blood and...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The world's largest toy maker Mattel has announced its third mass recall in weeks amid fears that 848,000 Chinese-made Barbie and Fisher Price toys could be tarnished with lead-tainted paint. The latest recall, announced Tuesday, comes as Mattel continues to investigate its Chinese toy production. The European Commission meanwhile said Wednesday it may ban some Chinese-made goods unless Beijing demonstrates it is effectively dealing with dangerous products. Top Mattel executives rallied to stress the US toy giant was working around the clock to ensure its toys were safe, as the company said its relationships with some Chinese...

When the 65 steel drums crossed from the Canadian border in late April, the accompanying documents said they contained honey from Canada, according to U.S. government officials. Since most food products from Canada are considered safe, the honey normally would have sailed through U.S. customs. But U.S. inspectors noticed something odd. The green steel drums were marked as containing apple concentrate from China, one official said. When Food and Drug Administration investigators examined the honey inside, they found chips of green paint -- most likely from the drums themselves -- floating at the bottom of some drums. And laboratory tests...

The piles of pills scattered across the desk of Wang Hai, China's leading consumer rights champion, look like painkillers and aspirin and come with convincing packaging. But appearances can be deceptive in China. "They're all fake. They don't contain anything dangerous, but they're all completely useless and just designed to rip off the consumer," said Mr Wang. There have long been cases of such phoney pills being exported to Africa. But the most recent spate of product and food quality scandals have left the "Made in China" label in tatters around the world. Since March, exports ranging from contaminated pet...

Recent scares have raised concerns about the safety of food products sold in supermarkets. But ingredient suppliers say brand-name food producers enforce strict safety standards. From pet food deliberately adulterated with melamine, to contaminated toothpaste and seafood with drug residues, a number of recent scares have raised questions about the safety of food imported from China and other parts of the world. So how much can Americans trust our food supply? Consider one of those frozen prepared meals found in a supermarket freezer — for example, Weight Watchers' ravioli florentine. The box bears a long list of ingredients: wheat,...

Health Canada and Amscan Canada announced Saturday the voluntary recall of 140,000 units of Favor Set brand pencils due to a high lead level found in the coating of the pencils. The pencils were manufactured in China. These pencils should immediately be taken away from children, as sucking or chewing on a such lead-tainted pencils can cause adverse health effects, especially in young children. There is no risk of lead exposure from holding a pencil with a coating that contains lead. In its news release, Health Canada did not identify the level of lead contained in the coating other than...

ILLEGAL: The substance is often added to commercial ponds to protect fish from micro-organisms, but food production use is banned because of possible side effects. Five batches of frozen shrimp from China tested positive for the banned antibiotic nitrofuran, Department of Health (DOH) officials said yesterday. "Further importation of shrimp from China will be suspended until we are convinced that the situation has been remedied," Bureau of Food Sanitation director Cheng Huei-wen told a news conference. Nitrofuran is sometimes added to aquaculture ponds to protect fish from harmful microorganisms. However, the use of nitrofuran in food production is banned in...

Think twice before biting into a chocolate to loose yourself in its taste - you might actually be chewing a wee bit more then you bargained for. On Wednesday (August 29).. worms and moths crawled out of a box of chocolates imitating a popular international brand, and even a few larvae. But by the time this was noticed, a few chocolate balls had been consumed. The chocolates were picked up by a Korean consumer on his trip to China. But local manufactoring experts say it looks as though the contamination happened during the manufactoring process. "It seems to be seriously...

A north Texas woman says a pair of made-in-China flip-flops she bought from Wal-Mart severely injured her feet. Taylor Vanover said she bought the flip-flops because they were cheap and that she developed a serious and painful rash after wearing them. "It hurts, it's irritating, very irritating," Vanover said of the rashes on both her feet that she said follow the exact design of the flip-flops she bought in Gun Barrel City in June. "It itches it burns it tingles. It started out as just like a normal looking rash, and then it's progressed into that, where the actual rash...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Toys "R" Us and the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday recalled 27,000 crayon and paint box sets because the printed ink on the outer packaging of the wood cases contains lead. Moreover, the CPSC said some of the black watercolor paint in the set contains excessive levels of lead, which violates the federal lead paint standard. The "Imaginarium" box sets were sold at Toys "R" Us stores and on the retailer's Website from Oct. 2006 through Aug. 2007. The recall involves the "Imaginarium" brand 213 Piece Wooden Coloring Case which includes crayons, pastels, colored pencils,...

China: Projected Number of Men without Wives Massively Increased By 2020, 37 million Chinese men would be unable to find wives if trends continue By Elizabeth O'Brien BEIJING, China, August 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Recent demographic reports are showing that the ratio of males to females in China is spiraling out of control. If the increasing imbalance, caused primarily by sex-selected abortions and infanticide, is not remedied, it will lead to increased crimes against women and the threat of an aggressively militant state. In January Chinese media reports said that by 2020, 30 million Chinese men would be unable to...

Menu Foods has re-supplied Wal-Mart with previously recalled pet food after placing a new UPC code over the previous UPC codes. They claim that the re-shelved foods are completely safe and that the packaging is the issue, not the food inside. The decision to place new stickers over the old UPC code was reportedly made together with Wal-Mart. Menu Foods said all of the contaminated food was returned back to them after the pet food recalls in March. In order to put a “safe” product back on the shelves, Menu Foods and Wal-Mart put a laminated sticker with a new...

John Michael of Bethesda stood in the supermarket aisle comparing labels on two cans of mackerel. One said "product of China"; the other, "product of Peru." For Michael, it was a no-brainer. No seafood from China for him, given the recent news of tainted Chinese imports. He wants to know where his food comes from. "Country-of-origin labeling is important to me for food safety reasons," said the 75-year-old grandfather. "My family's health is top priority." Eighty-two percent of U.S. shoppers agree with Michael, according to a survey released in March by the consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch. And...

<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing factory recycled used Wu, who had no license to sell the goods, said he had sold 100,000 pairs a day when business was good.</p> <p>China, on track to overtake the United States this year as the world's second-largest exporter, lacks the manpower to enforce food and drug safety regulations at home or for export. Imports are generally carefully scrutinized.</p>

(LITTLE ROCK, ARK.) - Tests of two Chinese brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores found traces of melamine, a chemical agent that led to another massive pet food recall in March, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Wal-Mart quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July, after customers said the products sickened their pets. Company spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said 17 sets of tests done on the products found melamine, a contaminant that's a byproduct of several pesticides. "There were very small amounts of melamine found," Galberth told The...

‘Those dirty communist bastards’. This phrase and similarly worded curses are being uttered by more Americans each day as the headlines in normally apologist media outlets are documenting case after case of Chinese malfeasance this summer of 2007. Headlines such as “More Tainted Chinese Toothpaste found”, “Mattel: 9M More Chinese-made Toys Recalled”, “Melamine in Pet Food may not be Accidental”, and more ominously “China Warns America It May Sell US Treasury Bonds” are perking up American ears. Nothing rattles the average American consumer like stories of beloved family pets dropping like flies, or Polly Pockets and Little People posing a...

China's massive export industry has provided ginger contaminated with a pesticide, fish food raised in untreated sewage and toothpaste containing a solvent – and now children's clothing containing the poison formaldehyde. According to a report in the Auckland, New Zealand, Sunday Star Times, an investigative team from the city's TV3 Target program has detailed how scientists found formaldehyde, a chemical preservative, in wool and cotton clothing at levels hundreds of times higher than levels considered safe. The chemical has been used as an embalming fluid and in clothing to preserve a "permanent press." It also has been used over the...

I'm not saying Chinese products are crap. I'm saying they are dangerous crap. I'm saying that you can only have trade with people who have integrity, and people who poison kids and animals don't have integrity. And, unless I'm misunderstanding all this, we had thousands of American pets killed by Chinese crap products. We've had almost 20 million American toys recalled because they were made by Chinese crap manufacturers. We've had poison Chinese crap toothpaste – with a lethal anti-freeze ingredient included – sold to Americans and other people around the world. Just yesterday, consumer advocates in New Zealand warned...

The safety problems affecting Chinese goods spread from toys to textiles on Monday as New Zealand said it would investigate allegations that imported children’s clothes contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde. The government ordered the probe after scientists hired by a consumer watchdog programme discovered formaldehyde in Chinese clothes at levels of up to 900 times regarded as safe. Manufacturers sometimes apply formaldehyde to clothes to prevent mildew. It can cause skin rashes, irritation to the eyes and throat and allergic reactions. The Warehouse, a New Zealand retailer, issued a recall at the weekend for children’s pyjamas made in China after...

The Bush administration is planning to call in customs officers to help overwhelmed health inspectors protect Americans from tainted imports of food, toys and other consumer goods, senior officials said Friday, describing a new strategy for dealing with compromised products. The evolving plan, to be delivered to President Bush next month by a task force he appointed, also is expected to call for wider deployment of sophisticated technology at entry points. Inspectors would use hand-held scanners to detect the presence of lead, arsenic and other dangerous substances in a range of products. The plan would emphasize the responsibility of U.S....

Reaping The Fruits Of A China-Dependent Economy http://www.tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPCommentary/reaping_the_fruits_of_a_china-dependent_economy.html For decades, American businessmen have been outsourcing production and setting up factories in Communist China. They cite a large and industrious work force with minimal labor costs as the reason that supposed allows them to manufacture a product at the lowest possible costs. American manufacturers employing American workers are hard-pressed to compete. Behind the façade of Asia’s industrial powerhouse, however, is the tragic reality of a society without morals. Chinese labor conditions are notoriously horrible with little or no provisions for worker safety. Wages are low, free trade unions not allowed and...

Law would streamline regulations -- if it passes The apple-blackberry sauce sold widely in Seattle supermarkets, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic seal on the label, says it comes from Chino, Calif. It also says "Product of Canada." So how do you know where it's from? You don't. Dried banana chips are labeled as being from Sumner. But banana trees don't grow in Sumner. Peanut butter from Canada? There are no peanut farms in that country. Congress passed a law in 2002 saying that consumers were to be told where the food they buy comes from. But five years...

Imports of popular Chinese fruit, vegetables and food products were blacklisted yesterday after tests found high levels of toxic contamination and cancer-causing chemical residues. The tests were conducted by the Department of Medical Science and the Food and Drug Administration on about 11,500 food items. They revealed dangerously high pesticide residues in Chinese spinach, white greens, carrots, celery, pears and collard greens, department chief Paichit Warachit said. Sulphur dioxide residues were also found in dried herbs such as Chinese pyrethrum and white mushroom, excessive amounts of lead in dried shark fin and seasoned seaweed, the carcinogenic drug chloramphenicol in goat...

This week Mattel recalled nearly two million Chinese-made toys over concerns they contain excessive levels of lead paint and loose parts. Dirt-cheap labour and a massive expansion in capacity means China makes more than three-quarters of the world's toys, with an export value in excess of £7 billion. But increasingly, there is evidence of inadequate safety standards, poor quality control and slave labour. Here, in an extract from his book about the toy industry, Eric Clark reveals the real cost of cheap toys from China. Behind high fences, sprawling factory compounds stretch mile after dusty, depressing mile along the congested...

(CHENGDU, China) - A highly infectious swine virus is sweeping China's pig population...... The government in Beijing acknowledged that in the past year, the virus had decimated pig stocks in southern and coastal areas. But animal virus experts said that the Chinese authorities were playing down the gravity and spread of the outbreak, and had refused to cooperate with international scientists. "They haven't really explained what this virus is," said Federico Zuckermann, a professor of immunology at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Illinois. "This is like SARS. They haven't sent samples to any international body. This...

(OTTAWA) - Fears of shoddy and dangerous toys pouring into Canada from China are prompting parents across the country to seek safer alternatives following a large-scale recall announced by Mattel this week. But many are finding it's a nearly impossible task because the majority of the world's toys come from China. "It's really difficult to find anything," said Keely Dennis, mother of a one-year-old boy in Vancouver. "It's really hard to find toys that aren't made in China that are age-appropriate, and are just cool, that your kid will play with." For the second time in two weeks, the toy...

(BEIJING) - China's problems with lead in consumer products go far beyond tainted toys. From playthings to paint to gasoline, Chinese companies use lead in a wide range of products and experts say China's children are suffering the health consequences. Beijing has prohibited leaded gasoline in recent years and has tightened standards for other goods. But enforcement is spotty, and lead is still so common that researchers say up to one-fifth of Chinese children tested had unsafe levels in their blood. In comparison, about 310,000 U.S. children ages 1 to 5, or less than 2 percent of that population, have...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc... the world's largest retailer, reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its full-year earnings forecast on Tuesday, saying its customers remain under economic pressure. Chief Executive Lee Scott blamed the disappointing performance on economic pressure around the world. "It is no secret that many customers are running out of money toward the end of the month," Scott said on a recorded conference call, adding that higher fuel prices, interest rates, utility costs and "more financial pressure" are hurting sales in its international market, including Mexico and Canada. With more than 127 million customers visiting a Wal-Mart store...

Official: China knew about magnets BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China knew about problems with magnets on toys as long ago as March, an industry official said on Wednesday, following a second massive recall of Chinese-made Mattel toys due to hazards from small, powerful magnets. Mattel's Barbie and Tanner doll set is one of the products being recalled. 1 of 2 Mattel Inc. the largest U.S. toy company, recalled millions more Chinese-made toys on Tuesday due to hazards from the magnets and lead paint, and warned it may recall additional products as it steps up testing. "We knew about the situation,...

(BEIJING) - Chinese police raided a village where live pigs were force-fed wastewater to boost their weight ahead of a trip to the slaughterhouse, state media said, in the latest case to highlight the country's poor food safety record. Four trucks packed with 80 live pigs were found by Beijing police on Wednesday in a vacant lot on the southern outskirts of the capital, the Beijing Morning Post reported on Thursday. Plastic pipes had been forced down the pigs' throats and villagers had pumped each 100 kilogram pig with 20 kilograms of wastewater, the paper said. The case underscored China's...

Former Chinese food businessman reveals how contaminated foods get sold (NEW YORK)—A recent report about buns with cardboard filling has created quite a stir. We interviewed Mr. Li Jianwei from Beijing, who owned his own food business for 8 years. Mr. Li Jianwei owned his food wholesale business in China from 1992 to 2000. He even supplied the factory where the cardboard buns are made. When he was interviewed, he said he was not surprised to hear about the fake filling, because it is very common to buy food with inferior ingredients in China. He also said that this situation...

Americans extremely wary of China goods: poll Tue Aug 7, 9:55 PM ET U.S. consumers are extremely wary of products made in China in the wake of a series of safety scandals, with nearly two-thirds saying they would support a boycott of Chinese goods, a poll showed on Tuesday. Asked by pollster Zogby International whether they were concerned about buying Chinese products, 82 percent of respondents said yes and only 30 percent said they believed food imports from China were safe. "The recent warnings and recalls about toxic toothpaste, tainted pet food, contaminated seafood and lead paint-laced toys from China...

(BEIJING) - China said Monday it will use global positioning satellites to ensure food safety at the Beijing Olympics as it steps up efforts to blacklist manufacturers who violate safety regulations. Wang Wei, an executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Committee, said the high-tech system will monitor food production, processing factories and food hygiene during the games to make sure healthy food is delivered to the 10,500 athletes residing in the Olympic Village. Food products will be affixed with an "Olympic food safety logistics code" and transportation vehicles will be tracked using global positioning satellites, Wang said. He did...

(ZENGCHENG, China) -- China's vast network of food research centers and laboratories churns out mountains of papers on the latest farming techniques and technology. Their work on chemical use, pollution risks and genetically engineered crops is considered to be among the most advanced in the world. The Ministry of Agriculture keeps close tabs on the developments, constantly issuing new advice and new regulations based on the research. None of that information reaches Li Xiujuan. With her husband and two children, Li tends to a 2 1/2 -acre farm in Guangdong province, on the southern coast, where many of the fruits...

(BEIJING)--China will breed pigs using hormone-free food for next year's Olympic athletes to avoid false-positive doping tests, Beijing's latest step to cool worldwide concern about the quality of Chinese food. The official pork supplier's announcement came as the government promised a nationwide food quality crackdown to restore trust after a string of scandals. Qianxihe Food Group said the pork from its pigs, which will be raised in secret locations, would not cause Olympic athletes to fail doping tests due to residual antibiotics and steroids. "Anti-doping concerns during the Olympics have caused officials to tighten food safety regulations so that athletes...

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. — For decades, the fiercely independent fruit and vegetable growers of California, Florida and other states have been the only farmers in America who shunned federal subsidies, delivering produce to the tables of millions of Americans on their own. But now, in the face of tough new competition primarily from China, even these proud groups are buckling. Produce farmers, their hands newly outstretched, have joined forces for the first time, forming a lobby group intended to pressure politicians over the farm bill to be debated in Congress in January. Nobody disputes that competitive pressures from abroad are...

Chinese officals defend food quality, criticize foreign media "fabrications" www.chinaview.cn 2007-08-02 23:13:28 Print BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official has lambasted foreign media for fabricating scares over Chinese food products. Some foreign media had viciously sensationalized product quality problems and food scares concerning a small number of Chinese goods or companies, said Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng. Some media fabricated safety problems in campaigns to block imports of Chinese goods, which he described as de facto trade protectionism, he said. Gao said some foreign media reports told of Chinese boys as young as six growing moustaches and...

(BEIJING)--More than 99 percent of China's exports are safe, the government insisted on Thursday, amid a US recall of nearly one million Chinese made toys over fears they contained toxic lead paint. "More than 99 percent of the products China exports are of good quality and are safe," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said in a statement posted on his ministry's website. "We hope that the relevant sides will handle Chinese products in an objective, fair and rational manner. This should not impact the normal development of trade." Bo made the remark on Wednesday while meeting in Beijing with Mexico's Economy...

The importing of a number of fish into the US from China has been banned due to health concerns. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel from China has been banned, due to concerns over drug residues that are not approved in the US for use on farm-raised aquatic animals, were found on fish. "We are taking this strong step because of current and continuing evidence that certain Chinese aquaculture products imported into the US contain illegal substances that are not permitted in seafood sold here," commented Dr David Acheson, FDA's...

China on Thursday strongly defended the quality of its exports and said it would work with the US to improve product safety in the wake of another substantial recall of goods made in China. Mattel is recalling 1.5m toys worldwide, including replicas of popular children’s television characters such as Elmo, Dora and Big Bird, because they use paint that contains too much lead, the biggest such problem to face the US toy-maker in more than a decade. The high-profile toy recall is the latest in a string of problems to face China-made goods in the US, ranging from contaminated pet...

HONG KONG — China is tightening its grip on media reporting food safety problems in Beijing following a recent rebuff by the government of a pork-bun report, the South China Morning Post said Tuesday. The Hong Kong daily said several media in China's capital city have been warned or ordered to cut down on political news coverage, especially regarding unsafe food. The report said the hardest hit was the tabloid Beijing Daily Messenger, which was told by the Publicity Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee to "scrap its political and social pages and cover only entertainment and lifestyle stories."

Hidden Import Dangers by: Bethany Stotts, July 26, 2007 In the last few months, a series of reports about the looming dangers of products from Communist China has sparked a public outcry against compromised foreign safety standards. Families at home now wonder whether the fish they eat will give them cancer, whether their medications contain poison, and whether it is safe to drive before buying new tires. With the revelation that 1.5 million Tommy the Train toys have been recalled because of lead-based paint, parents have realized that even their children are not safe from these hidden dangers. On July...

(BEIJING)--A U.S. delegation arrives in Beijing on Tuesday on a five-day fact-finding mission on food and drug safety amid a series of health scares about the "made in China" label. The United States stepped up inspections of imports from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of pets there this spring. Since then, poisonous ingredients have been found in Chinese exports of toys, toothpaste and fish, while the deaths of patients in Panama was blamed on improperly labelled Chinese chemicals that were mixed into cough syrup. "Our U.S. regulatory agencies are concerned about what they see...

When Mark Lanier, a liability lawyer in Houston, took the case of a 6-year-old girl who choked to death on a toy, he tried suing everybody in the supply chain: the fast-food restaurant that sold the toy in a children's meal, the American importer and the toy's Chinese manufacturer. The restaurant chain, Whataburger, and the importer settled for an undisclosed amount, but Lanier said he could not even find the proper entity in China to serve with a lawsuit. With Chinese imports triggering a flurry of product-safety violations in recent months, American consumers have grown increasingly anxious about how and...