Tetrodotoxin in Chinese monkfish
Mixing plastic component melamine in pet food.
Antifreeze diethylene glycol in cough syrop and toothpaste.
Deaths suffered by both animals and humans.
Imports from China have killed, and continue to kill.
Now Chinese monkfish is contaminated. And with one of the deadlist neurotoxins known to science. Tetradotoxin is best known as active poison in the deadly pufferfish.
Two people in Chicago have been overcome by tetradotoxin poison from Chinese monkfish:
Packages of fish imported from China into the United States and labelled as monkfish intended for consumers to eat, could actually be puffer fish containing the deadly toxin tetrodotoxin. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have today warned consumers not to buy or eat the mislabelled fish. Eating the puffer fish could cause serious illness and even death.
The FDA has analysed samples of the puffer fish and confirm that it does contain potentially life-threatening levels of tetrodotoxin.
The product was imported into the US by the California-based Hong Chang Corp, of Santa Fe Springs.
While the FDA allows puffer fish to be imported into the US, it is only under strict terms to minimize the risk of the fish being toxic. These mislabelled puffer fish were not imported under these terms and the FDA is currently chasing all imports from the Chinese supplier.
Two people in Chicago became ill after eating soup made with the fish. One was taken to hospital.
Consumers should neither eat nor handle the fish but throw it away. The tetrodotoxin could be either on the fish skin or in the flesh. Consumers are advised to wash their hands thoroughly if they handle the fish.
Tetrodotoxin is not destroyed by cooking or freezing.
Death by tetradotoxin is slow, and even worse, victims are often conscious through the process:
The first symptom of intoxication is a slight numbness of the lips and tongue, appearing between 20 minutes to three hours after eating poisonous pufferfish. The next symptom is increasing paresthesia in the face and extremities, which may be followed by sensations of lightness or floating. Headache, epigastric pain, nausea, diarrhea, and/or vomiting may occur. Occasionally, some reeling or difficulty in walking may occur. The second stage of the intoxication is increasing paralysis. Many victims are unable to move; even sitting may be difficult. There is increasing respiratory distress. Speech is affected, and the victim usually exhibits dyspnea, cyanosis, and hypotension. Paralysis increases and convulsions, mental impairment, and cardiac arrhythmia may occur. The victim, although completely paralyzed, may be conscious and in some cases completely lucid until shortly before death. Death usually occurs within 4 to 6 hours, with a known range of about 20 minutes to 8 hours.
The FDA is trying to find 300 boxes of the stuff. Let's hope they do before cheap Chinese imports cause more people to become poisoned, and look forward to suffocating by systemic paralysis.
Unfortunately, it would seem that most authorities are also suffering from paralysis in dealing with China:
While no Western country wants to risk losing access to the vast Chinese market, our pursuit of cheap goods shouldn't come at the price of our health.
Apologists for China say its government is seeking to improve its oversight bureaucracy. But at the heart of the problem is the ruling Communist party's disregard for community welfare as it seeks the fastest possible economic growth.
Indeed, China is on the verge of becoming the world's biggest polluter, despite having a far smaller industrial base than the United States.
China has also been ruthless in protecting its own economic interests. Beijing is a prime mover in the UN Security Council in scuttling Western-led proposals to protest genocide in Darfur by disciplining the Sudanese. This is because Sudan is an important supplier of oil to China.
Such behaviour by a Western government -- especially Washington -- would have left-leaning activists up in arms. Yet they tend to give Beijing a pass.
I bet these apologists and other useful idiots won't be ordering Chinese monkfish anytime soon.
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Comments
This might seem like a stupid question, but where are the Government food inspectors or whatever they are called, paid for by US and Canadian taxes? These are the people who we pay to stop these imports. These are the overpaid idiots who are allowing this.
Posted by: Pissedoff at May 26, 2007 11:43 AM
Would you buy a car from China?
Posted by: Chazz at May 26, 2007 04:54 PM
China is a FLICKING MESS ... and they don't give a sh!t about what happens after they ship something out and make a fast buck on it ... they are ferengi of the worst order ... and they have us by our Wal-Mart cajones ...!!!!
They and the muslims don't deserve to be part of the first world because they have contempt for us and our democratic values.
Posted by: at May 26, 2007 05:41 PM
...how does that old saying go?
You get what you pay for.
Posted by: tomax7 at May 27, 2007 08:30 AM
It's time to boycott any foodstuffs from China and give that regime the message they've chinked away all their credibility as a trusted trading partner.
Importing Chinese wheat products is the ultimate stupidity. What's the big trade deal when your getting foods dangerous to human and animal health?
Wonder what Mo Strong thinks on this subject? Wonder if he's had a few feeds of some of the dangerous products along with breathing their polluted air? That would be the same polluted air we are to send credits for under Kyoto.
It's becoming clearer those who dreamed up the Kyoto scheme and those who signed it were bereft of all common sense.
It certainly is puzzling why those in our thriving Western Democracies accept and trust inferior crap from such a regime as China.
Posted by: Libby at May 28, 2007 07:46 AM
My neighbour had ice cream yesterday and instantly broke out in a rash.
Wonder if it comes from China.
Posted by: DrWright at May 28, 2007 09:19 AM
"It certainly is puzzling why those in our thriving Western Democracies accept and trust inferior crap from such a regime as China."
Follow the money, Libby. Someone's making a lot of do-re-mi from these deals--probably in the Liberal Party, as most of these deals were made with China when they were in power.
We know that Chretien, Martin, and Strong spend a lot of time in China these days. 'Probably working for nothing, you know, they're so altruistic.
Posted by: 'been around the block at May 28, 2007 04:19 PM
Actually, this kind of stuff has been going on for a long time. In 1993, I bought my daughter, at a yard sale, one of those "Muffin Dolls," where the muffin part, turned upside down, becomes a skirt.
She loved it, and three hours later broke out in the worst hives I've ever seen, all over her body. We have pictures of her, poor kid. It took me a day or so to isolate this toy, which I put in a plastic bag and stowed away in the basement, just in case it wasn't the culprit. It was, and I threw it out.
But not before I wrote to Consumer Affairs with all of the details I could ascertain from the product. I don't think they ever got back to me.
As I say. Follow the money. We've got a lot of millionaires and billionaires in Canada, I suspect, thanks to trade with China--and it looks like we're going to have a lot of sick people, too, or worse.
Posted by: 'been around the block at May 28, 2007 04:25 PM
Interesting parallel with the Blue ringed octopus which is armed with the same poison. This tiny but deadly creature was used as the perfect murder weapon in Michael Crichton's book "State of Fear". It leaves little or no evidence of an entry wound, and is rare enough that most medical staff would not recognize it. It leads me doubt that recent occurences in Chinese products are accidental.
Posted by: Scott Merrithew at June 1, 2007 04:40 AM
The comparison to what happened when Canada discovered a few cases of BSE (mad cow disease) in dairy cattle not meant for human consumption, and where the risk of infectivity was virtually non-existent, is revealing. Why do we continue to treat China with kid gloves, when they violate so many norms of human rights, international trade and so on? They are not our friend. They are consumed by self-interest over all. I know, follow the money...
Posted by: Wayne at June 3, 2007 12:23 PM
 
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