Angry in the Great White North

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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