Christ, there's toxic Chinese crap in our drugs, too:

Contaminant found in heparin . The AP reports: U.S. health officials have identified a contaminant in batches of the blood thinner heparin associated with 19 deaths and are trying to determine how the chemical got into the drug.

Trying to determine how the chemical got into the drug? They know: The lots of heparin, whose key ingredient was imported from China, were recalled Feb. 28, and Food and Drug Administration officials said Wednesday that no new deaths have been reported since that time.

Ok, the FDA is trying to find out if the fucked up ingredient was deliberately or negligently fucked up. I am opting for the later. The Chinese simply are either not willing or able to regulate their manufaturing base. Period. Problem is, even someone who is as vigilant as I am can't be sure about the pedigree of any product they buy. For example, I take a daily vitamin and the bottle clearly states that the vitamins are Made in the U.S.A. But where did the Vitamin C in my morning vitamin pill come from? Probably China. Click the link to find out how China entered and quickly dominated the Vitamin C market. Here's a hint on how China did it: predatory pricing.

Comments

[Sorghum Crow]

F*cking Chinese crap. I don't know if it's possible to not buy Chinese; so many ingredients and components are from China. I bought garlic cloves the other day, from f*cking China. Crikey, you gotta check everything these days. And it's already starting to sprout. I'd plant it if I didn't have three feet of frozen sunshine on the ground. Does garlic make a good houseplant? I may find out.

[JDM]

Picky, picky, picky. First no one wanted to read "It Can't Happen Here." Now no one is going to read "The Jungle." We've been here before and once were on the way out. ANYfuckinfBODY feel like exercising one iota of historical memory?

No?

Awright then.

Shaddup and support the troops.

[John]

I will not tolerate framing this as some kind of China problem. This is nothing less than an attack on our God-given free market. I would suspect this is all some kind of Commie plot (except the China connection sort of muddies that up).

Anyway, let the free market work! If enough people die, they will quit using heparin. Problem solved. (Well, except for those who have strokes or whatever from not having heparin. But really, isn't that in a sense their own fault?) What do you want? Godless Federal regulation of food and drugs for safety? You Communists!

[gmb]

Sorghum: Definitely try growing it, but if you opt to purchase, go to a store that sells organic products or farmers markets. You can get those long braids of garlic and if you store it well it should last a while.
JDM: I keep checking labels. I actually was able to buy a plastic mop bucket that was made in the US. Really. There is some stuff out there.
John: Spoken like a true libertarian. Maybe that's the idea behind having 15% of the population go without health insurance. If they really wanted health care, dammit they would work for it. If not, well there goes the surplus population. More stuff for us. Although, corporations will suffer when there are fewer people competing for jobs and workers might use that to their advantage (they are devious that way). Wait, I know...we can ship the jobs overseas. Mission accomplished! GMB