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On this episode of China Uncensored, toxic products from China are making their way into the United States.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored, I'm your host Chris Chappell.
You know what's my most-favored-nation? Communist China! And why not?
Sure it's a totalitarian regime that brutalize its own people; constantly engages in hostilities with other nations
and is a growing cyber menace that cost the US billions in intellectual property theft, but...
I'm sorry! What was I saying?
Anyway, thanks largely to the Bill Clinton administration in the 1990,
the United States granted China most-favored-nation status which essentially open wide the door to trade
and what a great deal that was!
Imports from China rose dramatically.
Now there were some who weren't happy about this.
Particularly all the American manufacturers who said they were being undercut buy cheaper labor costs in China.
But hey, that's free market capitalism and that's as American as apple pie.
By the way, China is now the largest apple producer in the world so part your pie probably made in China.
But China had, how shall we say, a less than stunning reputation for quality.
Even Chinese officials admit the state of food in China is grim.
Of course here in the United States we don't have to worry about tainted products from China getting across our borders
because we have the Food and Drug Administration looking out for us.
Between 2006 and 2010, the FDA blocked 9000 unsafe Chinese products from entering American borders.
According to Consumer Reports, in a four month period in 2011 “the FDA rejected 298 shipments from China that included 'filthy' fruits, cancer-causing shrimp and 'poisonous' swordfish.”
Wow! It's a good thing the FDA's keeping such a close eye on import from a country with a known history of selling tainted goods.
Oh! What's that Shelly?
The FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all products seeking entry into the United States?
Hmm, so if there's already thousands tainted goods from China and it's less than 1% sample,
how much it's slipping through?
I can't tell you that. But at least I can tell you a few examples.
Here are the top 6 tainted exported Chinese products.
#6 - Tainted Milk.
Melamine is a wonderful fire resistant chemical compound useful in making for example, plastic dinnerware;
also when added to diluted milk, it can make it appear in tests as if the milk has higher protein content
which is why Chinese state-owned dairy producers Sanlu Group add Melamine to its milk and infant formula.
It's like when you steal from your parents tequila bottle and replace the missing amount with water.
Only instead of water, you add rubbing alcohol. No one will be the wiser, right?
So anyway in China, 6 infants died from Melamine poisoning and an estimated 300,000 got sick.
That partially because it happened just ahead of the 2008 Olympics,
so naturally the authorities covered it up for as long as they could.
But Melamine contamination also ended up in exports including in what used to be one of my favorite Chinese candy.
Yes, Melamine tainted White Rabbit candies showed up in Connecticut
and Melamine was an even bigger problem in South Korea
where certain varieties M&M and KitKat bars had to be recalled after some of them test positive from Melamine.
Even though the companies said the levels of Melamine were totally safe.
#5 - Tainted Pet
Why stop at milk when you can add Melamine into __, too?
I mean what's not to love about Melamine magical fake protein boosting power
except that in 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration received reports that about eight and a half thousand dogs and cats had died after eating tainted pet food.
But let me make this clear, it's not from a Chinese pet food brand.
These were American brands like Nestle Purina and Blue Buffalo.
They contained wheat gluten imported from the Chinese producer and that gluten contain poisonous levels of Melamine.
According to US law, if only part of product is from China and it was cooked or processed in the US, it doesn't have to be labeled as made in China.
So buying pet food is kinda like playing a game with your dog or cat, game of Russian roulette.
#4 - Tainted Fish
China produces sixty-two percent of the world's farmed fish
and fish farmers there often use dangerous levels of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, substances that may be banned in the US.
So why do they need to use all these chemicals?
Because rivers in China look like this.
With such unsanitary conditions for fish, no wonder they have to be pumped full of chemicals.
Half of all Chinese lakes and reservoirs are polluted beyond what's safe for human consumption
but fish raised in the same water is goody!
#3 - Toxic Toys
About three-quarters of the world's toys are made in China
and about a third of those may contain heavy metals, according to research by Greenpeace and IPEN in 2013.
And I'm not talking about the kind of heavy metal your parents think is poisonous.
No. I mean the kind that can cause permanent damage to a child's nervous and immune system.
No. I mean this.
Some of these toxic toys from China make their way into America.
In 2007, the US had a massive recall of 45 million Chinese toys because they were coded in lead paint.
Mattel alone had to recall 9 million.
Don't worry though, the Chinese manufacturers were listening. Most of them stopped using lead,
instead they switch to other heavy metals like cadmium, and arsenic which have also resulted in recalls.
#2 - Toxic Drywall
It seems toxic products from China are something Americans just can't live without especially when they're living within it.
During the housing boom between 2004 and 2007
an estimated 100,000 homes in more than twenty states were built using drywall from China and guess what, it was toxic!
Compounds like carbon disulfide not only erode electrical systems and plumbing but also make it hard to breath in your own home.
#1 - Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals
Blood is thicker than water.
Unless you've been using the blood thinner heparin. China has a huge problem with counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
Sometimes they make their way into the United States where they can kill.
In 2008 tainted heparin made by Changzhou SPL manufacturing plant in Jiangsu Province killed 81 Americans
and these were only some of the bigger products scandals.
So how do you feel about buying products made in China?
Or the fact that after so many scandals, we're still importing so much from there?
Leave your comments below and be sure to subscribe for more China Uncensored.
Once again I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time.