Tainted Meds From China Kill Panamanians

A top Panamanian prosecutor said tests show at least 94 people have died from taking medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and that 293 more deaths are under investigation.

Prosecutor Dimas Guevara told The Associated Press on Wednesday that people have continued to die this year even though the tainted medicine was pulled from shelves in October, with some struggling for months before dying.

Previously Panamanian authorities had confirmed only 51 deaths from the medicine.

A chemical commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid, diethylene glycol was used in cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made in a Panama government laboratory.

Investigations revealed the chemical was made by a Chinese company that fraudulently passed it off as 99.5 percent pure glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs, to a Spanish company. That company sold it to Panama’s Medicom SA, which sold it to a government laboratory.

China has been dealing with a rash of consumer protection problems, starting with the heavily publicized pet food recall, and morphed into a wide range of health care products, many of which were contaminated with toxic chemicals, and also tire recalls because they lacked key ingredients.

Nearly 60% of the goods recalled in the US this year originated in China. The list of defective products continues to increase, and who is shouldering the burden of these goods? Well, an importer of the defective tires looks like they'll be heading into bankruptcy because they simply lack the funds to handle the recall, which might cost upwards of $90 million on 450,000 tires.

But the problem also includes plenty of products that China produced for domestic consumption.

Tales of dangerously shoddy manufacturing within China are nothing new. In 2004 bogus baby formula killed dozens of infants. More recently the Chinese media have reported half a dozen dead and many ill from a flawed antibiotic, 11 dead from tainted injections, 56 people ill as a result of contaminated meat, toxic snacks pulled off shelves and fake blood protein discovered in hospitals. In May the head of the agency that regulates Chinese food and drugs, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes in exchange for licences to produce fake drugs and medical devices. And this week a report from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's standards watchdog, said that 20% of domestic products tested had failed to meet safety standards.

And those Chinese safety standards may well be below those of other countries, including the US. So, don't go looking for those Chinese cars rolling into US or European showrooms anytime soon. This Chinese car, tested in Germany, failed miserably. The car door and roof pillar collapsed, and if you were the hapless driver of this vehicle, you most likely suffered amputations of your legs, and massive trauma to the rest of your body, resulting in a bloody death.