Posted on 06/04/2007 5:01:28 AM PDT by GFritsch
Fish products consumed by Americans treated with dangerous drugs, chemicals
WASHINGTON – China, the leading exporter of seafood to the U.S., is raising most of its fish products in water contaminated with raw sewage and compensating by using dangerous drugs and chemicals, many of which are banned by the Food and Drug Administration.
The stunning news follows WND's report last week that FDA inspectors report tainted food imports from China are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.
China has consistently topped the list of countries whose products were refused by the FDA – and that list includes many countries, including Mexico and Canada, who export far more food products to the U.S. than China.
While less than half of Asia has access to sewage treatment plants, aquaculture – the raising of seafood products – has become big business on the continent, especially in China.
In China, No. 1 in aquaculture in the world, 3.7 billion tons of sewage is discharged into rivers, lakes and coastal water – some of which are used by the industry. Only 45 percent of China has any sewage-treatment facilities, putting the country behind the rest of Asia.
(Story continues below)
According to a new report by Food & Water Watch, the aquaculture industry crams fish and shellfish into facilities to maximize production, generating large amounts of waste, contaminating water and spreading disease if left untreated. The industry tries to control the spread of bacterial infections, disease and parasites by pumping the food supplies with antibiotics and the waters with fungicides and pesticides.
Many of the products used are banned in the U.S. Traces of these drugs have been showing up increasingly in imports – especially from China.
"In addition to potentially making people sick, overuse of such drugs is contributing to antibiotic resistance, a growing public health concern in a variety of foods," says Food & Water Watch in its report "Import Alert: Government Fails Consumers, Falls Short on Seafood Inspections."
But the grave news on China's seafood exports is worsened by the FDA's inability to inspect imports. The percentage of important seafood shipments with samples taken for laboratory inspection has decreased over the past four years, from 0.88 percent in 2003 to 0.59 percent in 2006 – this while seafood consumption in the U.S. was rising and more of that seafood was coming from China.
China became the leading exporter of seafood to the U.S. in 2004 – and amounts are rising fast. Chinese imports were up 14 percent in 2005 and 23 percent in 2006. This year, so far, they are up 34 percent over 2006.
"China's imports of aquaculture products are increasing despite the country's history of violations for veterinary drug residues," says Food & Water Watch. "Between 2003 and 2006, 35 percent of all refusals for veterinary drug residues were found on shipments from China. In 2006, 62.4 percent of all refusals for veterinary drug residues came from there."
Every year, one in four Americans is afflicted with a food-borne illness, with seafood being responsible for about 18 percent of 20 percent of those cases – or 15.2 million.
"The Food and Drug Administration can't find what it's not looking for," says Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter. "FDA's appalling record on inspecting seafood imports is irresponsible and poses a real threat to both the health of the American public and to homeland security."
Meanwhile, as the heat on China's export policies increases, Beijing is adamant that it is doing nothing wrong, and brands warnings issued by U.S. officials irresponsible – as in the case the latest scare over toothpaste contaminated with diethylene glycol.
"So far we have not received any report of death resulting from using the toothpaste," fumed China's General Administration of Quality Supervision. "The U.S. handling (of this case) is neither scientific nor responsible."
The FDA issued a warning Friday after toothpaste containing DEG was detected in a shipment seized at the border. The government says at least 100 people died after taking cough syrup containing DEG, an industrial solvent used in paint and antifreeze.
China's dismal drug-safety record was underscored this week by a Chinese court's decision to sentence to death the country's former top drug regulator.
Bon apetit.
No doubt vended from one of Wal-Mart's Superstore seafood section.
ping
ping!
I have an idea. Take the billions the President is sending to despots in Africa to “fight AIDS” and use that money to inspect the food shipped from China. When are we going to demand that our government do a better job of serving the citizens of the USA with our money?
Eat up America, you get what you pay for.
When you look in your market's seafood display case look closely. There are only a few species of fish caught in America. The rest are from Asia and some South American countries.
I'm just surprised no one has gotten deathly ill before this.
This is frightening.
In rural Nepal, human waste is used for crop fertilizer. It's an observable fact, and on any major trekking route you will see cultivated fields dotted with the telltale pink toilet paper that is sold throughout the country.I have not seen it myself, but reliable sources have talked about the fish farms they've seen in rural China. Some fish ponds are also used as village restrooms. Connect the dots.
Apparently the resulting "crop" is considered a local delicacy, because the fish are fatty and well fed, but it is not exported outside of China. Let's hope so.
You beat me to it! Thanks for the ping. LOL
Badboy China ping.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR !
We wanted cheap - we got cheap. Hope it goes down smooth.
How do we find out which companies in the U.S. are using these products from China?
Usually it is right on the label. Ask your grocer if they have anything produced locally.
Yes, you can now join the millions of happy and prosperous Chinese citizens taking advantage of the growing numbers of American and Western multinational corporations “outsourcing” their production to the hard-working and industrious people of China. This outsourcing has now spread to their food supplies and ingestible items. Since these firms pay us for gross weight – and this new weight will be pretty gross – and the stupid American government only spot-checks imported items in these categories (they just got lucky on the anti-freeze thing), it has opened an entirely new opportunity which our beloved Chairman is offering to any Chinese citizen willing to do a little of what the foolish Americans call “grunt work.”
Installing one of these state-of-the-art food additive production facilities behind YOUR hovel is as simple as clipping the coupon below and sending it to the address shown. Your production plant will be shipped to you in 4 to 6 weeks. Supplies are limited so don’t fart around. ACT NOW!! 
These silly Americans have an expression we have “borrowed” and modified to describe this new and exciting venture: “Don’t give me any s**t.”
Our motto will be “We won’t give any s**t. But we’ll SELL it to you fools at a really great price.”
AND LOOK FOR A NEW DROP-DEAD MONEY-MAKER COMING SOON. SOYLENT YELLOW PROMISES TO BE BIG!!
Thanks. I thought that was the case- but heard differently somewhere last week- don’t recall where.
Sometimes the labels are extremely deceptive though...so something may be ‘assembled’ in the U.S. but it came from who knows where.
If our government and the greenies owuld stop over regulating our fishing industry we wouldn't need to be importing seafood from 3rd world countries.
If I don't catch it myself, I buy my fish and shellfish from them that do catch it.
Just another reason I only buy fish and shellfish from people I know who doing the catching......that is when I don’t catch it myself.
Walmart is almost done expanding a store near me in Wasilla, Alaska to a Superstore.
I somehow think Alaskans being what we are and we are pretty smart about what we eat will for the most part not buy any food from the supermarket section, there is however a sad minority that lives in one room shacks and may find better prices albeit perhaps just a few pennies less than other stores a better bargain.
Our famioly will absolutely not buy any food stuffs from a Walmart supercenter, we did in Orlando once and we all got sick.
Do the chinese have no idea about cleanliness? They are responsible for bird flu and now this? Time to cut them off. (And lay off Was Mart, please.)
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