The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday three recalls, covering jewelry that the agency said could cause lead poisoning. They also covered a magnetic building set and plastic castles with small parts, which it said could choke children.
China is taking action sentencing some people to death (this on the approval of drugs that turned out to be harmful). It will be interesting to see what happens if these recalls and problems with products continue. There may come a time when people will begin to boycott Chinese products. That would be a tall order indeed.
It also brings into question the weakness of our own Food and Drug Administration. It shows they simply do not have enough people to keep track of all the products that come into this country. We’ve been lucky so far. But if some food or drug gets in that causes many injuries, sickness or death watch out.
At least their fireworks (used in most July 4 celebrations) seem to be ok. But then again who knows?
Well it seems I spoke too soon about this. Here's a story from the Post. The upshot is:
Identical boxes of commercial fireworks made in China malfunctioned at six Fourth of July displays in Northern Virginia including an accident in Vienna in which a misdirected shell injured 11 people, two seriously, officials said yesterday.
1 comment:
To me, this whole situation is a case study in the problems inherent in neo-con "free market" ideology. In China, where economic growth is the imperative, capitalists have an incentive to cut corners and break laws, aided and abetted by weak oversight. Oversight of all kinds is kept on a leash to avoid restricting economic growth.
Meanwhile, the neo-cons in the US use non-regulation to protect profits instead of people. This creates a situation in which the public is put at risk again and again in order to protect profits and avoid "interfering" with business.
Obviously, it's possible to have too much regulation, but the first duty of any government is to protect its people. In Bush's administration, this is clearly not happening.
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