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Pet Food, Toothpaste, Toys, and Now Lethal Drugs From China
Thursday, May 1, 08
By John F. McManus
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
A contaminant in a Chinese-produced blood thinner is believed to have caused the deaths of 81 Americans. Food and Drug Administration officials now suspect that a lethal substance was added to heparin deliberately.
Follow this link to the original source: "Heparin Contamination May Have Been Deliberate, F.D.A. Says"
COMMENTARY:
Poisoned pet food led to the death of many revered animals. Poison in toothpaste led to the need to destroy great quantities of the product. Poisonous lead paint led to recall of millions of dollars worth of toys. Now, it has become obvious that drugs imported from China are unsafe. Contaminated heparin, a drug widely used by patients with a kidney disease, is now blamed for 81 deaths. Moreover, it is believed that the contaminant was added to the drug delibarately.
Each of the incidents just mentioned stem from a single source: Communist China. As our nation becomes more and more dependent on imports from the Asian Goliath, Americans have become increasingly susceptible to shoddy work, products made with sub-standard and dangerous ingredients, and even lethal sabotage.
At an April 29th hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the director of the FDA’s drug center, stated in written testimony that a third of the material found in some quantities of heparin was contaminated. According to Dr. Woodcock, "it strains one's credulity to suggest that [this] might have been done accidentally." She stated further that "FDA's working hypothesis is that this was intentional contamination, but this is not yet proven."
The FDA has identified the source of the tainted drug as Changzhou SPL, a subsidiary of Scientific Protein Laboratories and the eventual supplier of contaminated heparin to Baxter International, the manufacturer and distributor of the product. David G. Strunce, CEO of Scientific Protein Laboratories, termed the discovery "an insidious act," adding that it "seems to us an intentional act upstream in the supply chain." Baxter's chief executive, Robert Parkinson, expressed alarm "that one of our products was used in what appears to have been a deliberate scheme to adulterate a life-saving medication."
As expected, Chinese officials protested that the product made in their country caused no harm. But congressional investigator David Nelson told the House members that if FDA personnel inspected the plant in China, they would have averted the tragedy that occurred. Chinese officials, admitting nothing, have claimed a right to inspect U.S. plants if the FDA insists on inspecting theirs. Even so, an inspection had been held at the Changzhou facility and FDA officials found so many problems that they stopped the importation of products from the plant. Nelson took the occasion to aim sharp criticism at Baxter International for importing products from Changzhou for several years without conducting its own inspection.
The deaths of 81 innocent individuals because of lethally tainted heparin ought to make all products coming from China suspect. But U.S. dependence on Chinese imports grows, along with continued U.S. government borrowing from the Beijing government. All kinds of nooses are being prepared to use on a weakened America. The need for a complete overhaul of U.S. policy is long overdue.John F. McManus is President of The John Birch Society.
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