THE DAILY 'EAT ZINC!' Drink organic solvent -- then die, too
Today, there's not much more to say about the latest exported outrage from the Chinese industrial giant, brought to you courtesy of the New York Times.
"Over the years, [diethylene glycol] has been loaded into all varieties of medicine — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of [Chinese] counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products," reports the newspaper.
"Toxic syrup has figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the precise origin of the poison has never been determined. But records and interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China, a major source of counterfeit drugs.
"Chinese companies that made and exported the poison as 99.5 percent pure glycerin.
"Forty-six barrels of the toxic syrup arrived via a poison pipeline stretching halfway around the world. Through shipping records and interviews with government officials, The New York Times traced this pipeline from the Panamanian port of Colón, back through trading companies in Barcelona, Spain, and Beijing, to its beginning near the Yangtze Delta in a place local people call 'chemical country.'"
Later in the story, it is reported: "In China, the government is vowing to clean up its pharmaceutical industry, in part because of criticism over counterfeit drugs flooding the world marked."
Sure they have. Just as it has been vowed that melamine, or chloramphenicol, or whatever, would be cleaned up along with everything else, after animals and people start dieing. But absent documented death, no harm, no foul.
From the standpoing of your GlobalSecurity.Org national security expert on fine biochemicals, it's fundamentally a hopeless proposition to expect any practical help from the Chinese government.
Diethylene glycol was another compound DD worked with in the laboratory under the tradename Cellosolve. Again, it must be emphasized how astonishing it is that someone would use it as a diluent in syrupy medicines. Outrageous, although a strong word, doesn't quite cover the subject.
In any case, expecting the Chinese government's help in cleaning up so many practices found to be vile would seem to be akin to wishing on a star.
However, one can look to domestic partners of Chinese exporters. They are the ones who enter into deals in the global marketplace because it is cheaper and easier than making materials in house. And they must shoulder a big amount of blame for shirking due diligence, not just being the victims of bad luck and bad faith.
In the past few days for EAT ZINC, our amusingly unpopular series on poisoned consumables from China, DD has repeatedly made the point that if a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden's had been found working factories in a foreign country, shipping poison to the United States, drastic action would have been commanded. For the sake of this discussion, the facilities in question would now be on the unpleasant end of a strategic bombing campaign, or a good old-fashioned cruise missile shower.
However, since it's the pursuit of profit that has caused terror, pain and loss, it's just very bad business in the global marketplace. Business that will cause a temporary stink before shoulders are shrugged and daily work reverts to the usual anything goes ethic.
The New York Times original.
JT Baker poison specs on diethylene glycol, or DEG.
Diethylene glycol spikings in poisonings from contaminated medicinal syrups, in Haiti. Why diethylene glycol, aka DEG? Because it has a sweet taste and using it as a diluent will pass infrared spectroscopic analyses of imported medicines.
Related: Friday's EAT ZINC!
Incidental agroterrorism.
Today, there's not much more to say about the latest exported outrage from the Chinese industrial giant, brought to you courtesy of the New York Times.
"Over the years, [diethylene glycol] has been loaded into all varieties of medicine — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of [Chinese] counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products," reports the newspaper.
"Toxic syrup has figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the precise origin of the poison has never been determined. But records and interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China, a major source of counterfeit drugs.
"Chinese companies that made and exported the poison as 99.5 percent pure glycerin.
"Forty-six barrels of the toxic syrup arrived via a poison pipeline stretching halfway around the world. Through shipping records and interviews with government officials, The New York Times traced this pipeline from the Panamanian port of Colón, back through trading companies in Barcelona, Spain, and Beijing, to its beginning near the Yangtze Delta in a place local people call 'chemical country.'"
Later in the story, it is reported: "In China, the government is vowing to clean up its pharmaceutical industry, in part because of criticism over counterfeit drugs flooding the world marked."
Sure they have. Just as it has been vowed that melamine, or chloramphenicol, or whatever, would be cleaned up along with everything else, after animals and people start dieing. But absent documented death, no harm, no foul.
From the standpoing of your GlobalSecurity.Org national security expert on fine biochemicals, it's fundamentally a hopeless proposition to expect any practical help from the Chinese government.
Diethylene glycol was another compound DD worked with in the laboratory under the tradename Cellosolve. Again, it must be emphasized how astonishing it is that someone would use it as a diluent in syrupy medicines. Outrageous, although a strong word, doesn't quite cover the subject.
In any case, expecting the Chinese government's help in cleaning up so many practices found to be vile would seem to be akin to wishing on a star.
However, one can look to domestic partners of Chinese exporters. They are the ones who enter into deals in the global marketplace because it is cheaper and easier than making materials in house. And they must shoulder a big amount of blame for shirking due diligence, not just being the victims of bad luck and bad faith.
In the past few days for EAT ZINC, our amusingly unpopular series on poisoned consumables from China, DD has repeatedly made the point that if a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden's had been found working factories in a foreign country, shipping poison to the United States, drastic action would have been commanded. For the sake of this discussion, the facilities in question would now be on the unpleasant end of a strategic bombing campaign, or a good old-fashioned cruise missile shower.
However, since it's the pursuit of profit that has caused terror, pain and loss, it's just very bad business in the global marketplace. Business that will cause a temporary stink before shoulders are shrugged and daily work reverts to the usual anything goes ethic.
The New York Times original.
JT Baker poison specs on diethylene glycol, or DEG.
Diethylene glycol spikings in poisonings from contaminated medicinal syrups, in Haiti. Why diethylene glycol, aka DEG? Because it has a sweet taste and using it as a diluent will pass infrared spectroscopic analyses of imported medicines.
Related: Friday's EAT ZINC!
Incidental agroterrorism.
posted by George Smith at 3:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home