Chillin' in Jeju, Korea: Toxic china

a.k.a. why fair trade matters to you ;)

Ah China! A quarter of the world’s population. A cool language that’s tattooed on people’s arm. Martial arts, Confucianism, Chinese food! But when we think of China, the most famous icon is “Made in China”.

Look at your Nike shoes. Your dishes. You coffee mug. Your DVD player. Your pencil sharpener. Your car. It seems like everything is made in China – from ridiculously cheap goods, to the most classy and expensive ones.

I guess this is one of the things human beings have in common: “Made in China”.

But why not all switch to “made from a clean place with basic standards and where human rights are respected”?

Here’s a list of recent Chinese exports that have been re-called because they were safety hazards:

1. Lead Toys

1.5 million toys recalled because the surface paint contains lead, a toxin that's dangerous if swallowed (can damage brain cells). Toys were sold at Fisher Price, Toy’r’us, Mattel, Barbie, etc.

2. Kerosene eyeball toys
In June 2007 in the US a ghoulish fake eyeball toy made in China was recalled after it was found to be filled with kerosene (!!??)

3. Toxic toothpaste
FDA has identified several brands of toothpaste from China that have been found to contain a poisonous chemical called diethylene glycol (DEG). The products typically are sold at low-cost, “bargain” retail outlets.

4. Tires that split
In New Jersey 450,000 tires were recalled after the company disclosed that its Chinese supplier had stopped including a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating.

5. Scooters’ handlebars falling off
In L.A. 20,000 electric scooters because of fears welding work could cause the handlebars to fall off.

6. Kids choking on Starbucks cups
Starbucks children's plastic cups made in China reportedly fracture easily, leaving sharp edges and broken pieces that pose a choking or laceration hazard to children.

7. Crayons and paint
Toys R Us have recalled 27,000 Chinese-made paint and crayon sets after the wooden box packaging was found to contain lead.

8. Cribs where kids die
1 million Chinese-made cribs were recalled following reports of three infant deaths and entrapment; suffocation concerns.

9. Logger boots?
Electrocute yourself!9,500 pair of Caterpillar Logger Boots were recalled because they were improperly labeled as resistant to electricity - they aren’t.

10. Kill your adored pet with Chinese animal food!
More than 60 million cans of cat and dog food were recalled after the deaths of 14 animals. Wheat gluten — an ingredient in commercial pet foods — was contaminated with the chemical melamine, as well as rat poison.

11. Kill your baby with counterfeit formula!
Chinese consumers have also suffered from contaminated food products, including the death of infants fed with counterfeit formula.

12. Even spinach!
Frozen Chinese spinach was recalled after exceeding levels of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide, were found in the vegetable.

13. Chinese honey = cancer?
Chinese honey revealed traces of an antibiotic called chloramphenicol in ten out of 16 samples. In larger doses chloramphenicol can cause cancer. It is also considered a contributory factor in developing aplastic anaemia, a rare but serious blood disorder that affects 50 to 100 people a year in the UK.

14. Fake labeling
Up to 2,228 tons (nearly 4.5 million pounds) of Chinese honey was shipped to Australia and then re-exported to the United States in the 2001-02 financial year at a time when the U.S. had banned Chinese honey.

15. Genetically Enginerred rice
Greenpeace announced that non-approved genetically-engineered (GE) rice has been detected in Heinz's Baby Rice Cereal and the environmental group called for an immediate recall of all the contaminated products.

16. Dyed egg yolks, really!?
Some farmers in China injected an industrial dye, suspected of causing cancer, into eggs to make the yolks look fresher. Farmers also injected chemicals into mangos to have them ripen sooner or into strawberries and apples to make them more reddish; fishermen used malachite green, a suspected carcinogen, to treat freshwater fish to make them appear fresher.

17. Flammable pajamas
New Zealand launched an investigation into Chinese garment imports after children's clothes from China were found to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde concentrations - up to 900 times above the safe level in woolen and cotton clothes.
Formaldehyde — a chemical preservative that gives a permanent press effect to clothes and is also used as an embalming fluid — can cause problems ranging from skin rashes to cancer.

18. Toxic syrup
Toxic syrup from China is responsible for causing over 300 deaths.

19. Contaminated bibs
Winnie The Pooh (sold at Toys’R’Us) vinyl baby bibs appear to be contaminated with lead.

20. Even leukaemia drugs are not safe!
Chinese authorities have ordered the recall of two contaminated leukaemia drugs blamed for adverse reactions among child patients. Several child leukaemia patients experienced difficulties in walking after being injected with them. The drugs had also caused urine retention among some leukaemia patients.

21. Toxic exports to Thailand
About 10 percent of 11,500 Chinese food products entering Thailand's northern border have been rejected or destroyed because they were contaminated with hazardous toxins. The products rejected at the Thai border included dried shark fins, seasoned seaweed and artificial sweeteners.

22. Contaminated seafood
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is detaining imports of farm-raised seafood from China because they have repeatedly been found to contain residues of drugs not approved in the US for farm-raised aquatic animals.The products affected are catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (a relative of the carp) and eel imported from China.

23. Toxic rice in everything?
Illegal Genetically Engineered rice has contaminated food in France, Germany and the UK. Greenpeace offices and Friends of the Earth in the UK tested samples of rice products such as vermicelli, rice sticks and other processed foods. Five positive samples were found containing an illegal GE organism not approved anywhere in the world. However this may only be the tip of the iceberg. Rice products are included in everything from baby food to yoghurt.

24. Green tea…
Green tea from China found to be contaminated with alarming levels of pesticides.

25. Chinese medicine… not the cure?
A toxic herb that can cause kidney failure has been found in commonly-used traditional Chinese herbal medicines, the government has revealed.

26. and the list goes on…

I browsed the web for a few hours to find all this stuff out (refs. are at the end) and a lot of articles questionnned whether China is trying to poison America. But as it turns out (that would call for a whole other entry) China is also poisoning its very own population with the same/similar problems.

And let’s not get into the air pollution issue – which, by the way, brings yellow dust in Seoul in spring, making it hard to breathe, leading to throat problems and itchy eyes. I know, I was there last year!

About 75% of U.S. toys are now made in China. Today China is responsible for about 60 percent of all product recalls from the US, compared with 36 percent in 2000. Should they be scared?

The owner of a Chinese toy factory identified by Mattel as the maker of the lead-tainted toys involved in a million unit recall committed suicide inside his factory. According to the article on BBC, dishonored officials commonly commit suicide.