Contaminated Chinese (Wheat Gluten) Blues

This article will 'dish' a bit on the 'joys' of globalization and on differing safety standards for food and feed products, and environmental standards. And by dish, I mean melamine. Eh? I hear you say. Keep reading!

Earlier this year I reported that the tainting of pet food with contaminated Chinese wheat gluten might be only the tip of a larger iceberg (albeit an iceberg made of contaminated Chinese gluten). That's because wheat gluten is used in a lot of things people and their pets eat. Now various news outlets have reported that the pet food recall has been expanded to include Hill's Prescription Diet DRY m/d pet food, which is manufactured by Menu Foods, as well a brand of dog biscuits as by an Alabama company.

The culprit this time? Contaminated Chinese gluten, once again.

This time the 'magic ingredient' is not aminopterin. This time it's melamine. Yes, that would be... plastic. Melamine is used in North America and in Europe to make plastic dishes and plates. And what do the Chinese use it in? Fertilizer. How terribly scientific of them! Just what plants need, a good dose of plastic. Right, suuuuuuuuure it is.

China Environmental Blog reports from an article in the Washington Post that
"Chinese environmental officers say they are proud of their progress and that Beijing should be judged not by international standards but by how much it has improved."

"People who come here for the first time feel that the environment and the air is not good," said Yu Xiaoxuan, deputy director for construction and environment for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games. "But they do not know how bad the pollution was several years ago." Longtime Beijing residents say the change is striking. Bo Guoping, 60, a retired factory worker who on a recent weekend was flying a kite in one of the city's new parks with her grandson, remarked: "These days, we can see the sky. Before, it was all gray."" from China Environmental News Blog.

But before we leap to any conclusions, let's consider the situation in some villages in China near the Siberian border. Here is an excerpt from an excellent piece by the CS Monitor on how Chinese villagers are being poisoned by industry and are battling to clean up their environment so they survive and don't die early or have children suffering form severe fluoride poisoning because of disreputable industrial practices and terrible government environmental standards.

Here's part of it. I hope you have a strong stomach.

"...small towns like Leifeng and Puxing, which are just a few hundred miles away from those cities, have languished. Good intentions from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) can't solve every problem, and local officials often have little incentive to do the right thing.

The job of fighting for victims of environmental disasters is thus being taken up by growing ranks of activists and lawyers. SEPA did not respond to phone calls or written questions about the pollution in Leifeng and Puxing. "The problem is that despite all the positive rhetoric emanating from Beijing, very little has found its way down to the local level," says Elizabeth Economy, senior Asia researcher with the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "The River Runs Black," on China's environmental crisis.

"The grass-roots ... movement is where the energy is coming from in China," she adds. The plight of Leifeng and Puxing, long ignored by government and media, has become a perfect example of this larger movement. Under the direction of a legal center in Beijing as well as a local law clerk, Leifeng and Puxing villages are fighting for their day in court.

Villagers' concerns began in 2001, when hundreds of pigs and chickens mysteriously died. After Chinese New Year 2002, scores of people were stricken with illnesses ranging from debilitating headaches and severe stomach problems to heart palpitations. After wearing freshly washed clothes, many developed strange rashes. Those who worked at the factory started to talk about what went on inside and fingered the likely culprit: toxic waste.

"At first we didn't believe it," recalls Cao Qingren, a local law clerk who is fighting for the villages. "Then we realized the water must be bad.""

Just peachy.

Well then... Has it changed your mind, gentle reader? Thought not. Talk about use at your own risk! This reporter will be going out of her way to avoid purchasing ANYTHING with gluten in it and anything from China that can be ingested, given their laws on aminopterin and melamine use. Who knows what will be found next in Chinese food products. Plutonium? Arsenic? Well I certainly hope not but who knows? There doesn't seem to be a lot of oversight at this point.

Besides, think of all the energy that will be saved and greenhouse gases avoided not burning fuel to lug contaminated trade goods across the Pacific from China to North America.