China calls for cooler heads over product safety
BEIJING (Reuters) - China called for cooler heads to prevail in a dispute over product safety on Wednesday, accusing critics of exploiting concerns about specific cases to erect barriers to its exports in general. In the latest incident, the Dominican Republic has banned the sale of two brands of Chinese toothpaste for allegedly containing a lethal chemical responsible for dozens of poisoning deaths in Panama last year.
A company under investigation for exporting the toothpaste, Danyang Household Chemical Company, defended its product.
"Toothpaste is not something you'd swallow, but spit out, and so it's totally different from something you would eat," one company manager, who declined to be identified, said by telephone from the eastern province of Jiangsu.
Toothpaste toxin `safe'
SHANGHAI, China — Wire reports - The maker of a Chinese toothpaste found to contain a potentially deadly chemical said today that he is under investigation but claimed his product was safe.
Chen Yaozu, general manager of Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co., said his firm had exported toothpaste to Panama containing diethylene glycol, blamed for the deaths of at least 51 people there after it was mixed into cough syrup.
Chen said the chemical, a thickening agent used as a low-cost substitute for glycerin, was permitted under Chinese rules and was safe in small amounts.
FDA Finds Melamine in Chinese Catfish
Tests conducted at a US Food & Drug Administration laboratory on behalf of the Arkansas Department of Health & Human Services have detected melamine in at least one sample of imported Chinese catfish. And while officials are downplaying the health hazard, this latest finding suggests that the human food supply is much more widely contaminated than previously acknowledged. Huffington Post
