China Must Come Clean

The Chinese government must do a far better job of providing key information relating to health and environmental crises after a spate of recent health crises that appear to have originated in their country.

There was contaminated pet food that sickened and killed thousands of pets because the food was tainted with a chemical that appears to have been traced back to Chinese companies cutting corners.

Then, there's the bogus medication imported from China that used toxic chemicals that have killed dozens in Panama:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has issued a warning to drug manufacturers, suppliers and health professionals that counterfeit drug additives have been using diethyline glycol, or DEG as a substitute for glycerin in cough medicine, fever medication and injectable drugs.

DEG is an industrial solvent commonly used in antifreeze and in recent years has caused deaths in Panama and Haiti when it was used as a substitute for glycerin, a more expensive sweet syrup, in cough medicine.

The FDA says some Chinese suppliers are using the poisonous DEG instead of glycerin and is warning manufacturers and suppliers of the importance of testing glycerin for DEG.

The FDA says although they have had no reported contamination cases as yet in the U.S. regarding DEG the most recent incident in Panama in September 2006 involved DEG-contaminated glycerin used in cough syrup and resulted in dozens of hospitalizations for serious injury and more than 40 deaths.

DEG is a chemical cousin of antifreeze that can cause kidney and neurological damage if ingested and though the source was eventually traced back by investigators in four countries to the Taixing Glycerine Factory factory in China, no one in China has ever been charged with causing the Panamanian deaths.

Now comes word that there is a animal epidemic in China that is killing pigs in large numbers. There's no word as to the source of the illness or what the Chinese are doing to prevent its spread. The government is mum over the story, and that means health officials around the world are in the dark about a possible emerging illness.

Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river.

The reports in Hong Kong said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, and is now spreading. But state-controlled news outlets in China have reported almost nothing about the pig deaths, and very little about the wheat gluten problem.

A man answering the phone at the city government offices in Gaoyao, 140 miles northwest of Hong Kong, confirmed late this afternoon that pigs were dying there. He declined to give his name.

Instapundit is concerned about the silence of the Chinese government over the incident. He's right to be concerned.

I'm also concerned about the immediate health policy implications for the Chinese downriver of where reports claimed that there were pig carcasses floating in a river. That means that whatever killed the pigs may have entered the river as well - potentially contaminating and infecting other animals - and even humans - who use that water for drinking or other purposes. What are the Chinese doing about that? If their experience with the Songhua disaster is any indication, the answer is not much and not until the problem is spiralling out of control.

The problem is that with Chinese products bought and sold globally, the lax oversight and quality control problems, not to mention fraud and dangerous products can affect not just Chinese users, but consumers around the world. The silence and inaction of the Chinese government puts lives at risk.

UPDATE:
The pet food recall may be expanded even further as authorities in the US and China are looking at yet another chemical contaminant:

A second industrial chemical that American regulators have identified as a pet food contaminant may have been intentionally added to animal feed by producers seeking larger profits, according to interviews Tuesday with chemical industry officials.

Three chemical makers said Chinese animal feed producers often came to purchase cyanuric acid to blend into their feed because it was cheaper and helped increase protein content. In the United States, cyanuric acid is often used as a chemical stabilizer in swimming pools, though it is not thought to be highly toxic on its own.

Up until now, American regulators had focused on a chemical called melamine. Animal feed producers here have acknowledged recently that for years they added melamine to animal feed to gain bigger profit margins.

But American regulators and scientists have also been aware for several weeks that cyanuric acid may have played a role in causing sickness or death in pets.

China said on Tuesday that it had found two companies guilty of intentionally exporting pet food ingredients containing melamine to the United States.

It would appear that the latest contamination issues may have entered the human food supply as farm raised fish may have been given tainted feed. Researchers believe that the combination of cyanuric acid and melamine may have combined to form a toxic brew sufficient to kill and injure thousands of pets in the US and spurred a massive pet food recall.