Is it REALLY worth it?
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12vmanRick
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SchoolGirlHeart
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Be afraid.... be very afraid....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/busin ... ref=sloginChinese Launch High-Tech Plan to Track People
By KEITH BRADSHER
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 9 — At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity.
Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.
Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.
Carry on as you know they would want you to do. ~~JB, dedication to Tim Russert
Take your time
Find your passion
Life goes on until it ends
Don’t stop living
Until then
~~Mac McAnally
Take your time
Find your passion
Life goes on until it ends
Don’t stop living
Until then
~~Mac McAnally
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Tequila Revenge
- Lester Polyester
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- Location: Living in a van down by the river
I was at COSTCO today doing what American’s are supposed to do to, I was consuming. BTW Gary, the have a four DVD special of Sandra Bullock movies for $8.99. I moseyed over to the nutritional supplements and the over to the aspirin aisle, and the thought hit me, “How much of this stuff comes from China?” Most of the labels told me the product was distributed by XYZ or re-packaged by ABC company. But NONE of them listed the point of origin. This is pretty bothersome, isn’t it?
Carroll: American businesses must consider the 'China factor'
Business ethics
By Archie B. Carroll | Columnist | Story updated at 7:10 PM on Saturday, July 14, 2007
Clearly, China has become the world's manufacturer and supplier of products. Recent statistics reveal just how many of our products originate in China. China supplies more than half of all apple juice imported into the U.S., supplies 80 percent of the world's vitamin C,
produces about 80 percent of all toys sold in the U.S., exports more advanced technologies to the U.S. than any other country and supplies more than 20 percent of all seafood imported into the U.S.
Last year, the U.S. had a $232 billion trade deficit with China. It is little wonder the business community now talks about the "China factor." But, the China factor now appears to mean more than just manufacturing and supplying products at exceptionally low prices. Now questions of safety have moved center stage in the discussion, as reports of substandard products, warnings and recalls are being reported.
Where does your food come from?
Food labels don't tell the whole inside story
By Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:07/22/2007 01:44:16 AM PDT
That loaf of Sara Lee bread on the grocery shelf in San Jose was made with flour from U.S. wheat. But the Illinois-based food giant uses honey and vitamin supplements from China.
While Paul Newman's daughter uses California figs in cookies made by her Aptos organic food company, she turns to Mexico and Austria for other ingredients.
And even though a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman described Crest toothpaste "as a truly American product," it uses additives from China and Finland.
Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.
"It's not just the stuff that says `Made in China.' It's the stuff in the stuff that says `Made in the USA,' " said Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "We're importing more and more of our food and we're inspecting almost none of it."
William Hubbard, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner who is advocating for a beefed-up food safety system in the United States, agreed.
"It's not which foods contain these ingredients, but which foods don't contain them," he said.
You may not know it from the label. Food makers aren't required to disclose the source of what goes into most products.
Some major food makers won't even talk about it. Campbell's and Kraft use ingredients from around the world, although representatives there refused to say which countries supply them.
"We don't want to be the poster child" for an article about imported ingredients, said Campbell's spokesman John Faulkner.
"We'd prefer to leave it that we're very confident about our practices."
Indeed, most European countries have high standards, Hubbard said. And not all Chinese products are of poor quality, said Peter Kovacs, a former executive with several national food companies who now owns a food-ingredient consulting business, the Kovacs Advisory Group.
Lower quality
Some American firms
lured by low costs
The lure of lower prices has led some American firms to accept lower-quality imports, Kovacs added. But he said most major food companies are rigorous about checking the ingredients they import, even if the government is not.
To understand why so many American products are a composite of ingredients from around the world, one need look no further than three products found on any household shelf: a tube of toothpaste, a bag of cookies and a loaf of bread.
In making a simple loaf of bread, the bakers at Sara Lee must look to multiple sources for some standard ingredients, said company spokesman Mark Goldman.
"You cannot meet consumer demand, and meet the demands of a growing business, without finding multiple sources for your ingredients," he said. "Global sourcing of ingredients has been and will continue to be a necessary practice."
While Kovacs said lower costs are often a reason for buying overseas, food makers also say they obtain ingredients from other countries because they can't find sufficient quantities in the United States.
As an example, Goldman said, "It's impossible to meet the demand for honey without sourcing outside the United States."
Domestic production has failed to keep pace with increased demand for honey in recent years. Most honey is still produced by relatively small beekeeping operations, and in recent years, many U.S. honeybee colonies have been devastated by parasitic mites and a mysterious disorder known as "colony collapse."
The China factor
Honey production
came under scrutiny
Meanwhile, China is now the world's largest producer of honey, though it's had problems. In 2002, Europe and the United States banned Chinese honey after finding some batches containing potentially harmful levels of an antibiotic that farmers may have used to help their bees resist disease. Imports resumed within months, however, after the Chinese government halted the antibiotic's use.
For its Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread, Sara Lee now buys honey from China, as well as Vietnam, India, Canada and several Latin American countries. Goldman said all of its sources must meet the company's quality standards.
The company's procurement experts visit suppliers around the world to ensure they follow health and safety rules, Goldman said. It requires suppliers to test and certify that ingredients meet specifications spelled out in purchasing contracts. Sara Lee also does its own testing.
In the United States, its central procurement office sets uniform standards for a nationwide network of bakeries.
Like other major U.S. firms, Sara Lee also looks to China for the B vitamins - thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid - and iron that are commonly used to enrich wheat flour. China has become a leading source of these additives, Goldman said, "as the industry has consolidated, limiting the number of available suppliers."
With lower production costs - in part because of cheap labor and minimal environmental regulations - China now dominates the world market in vitamin supplements and other chemical food additives, such as stabilizers and emulsifiers, that are used in American processed foods, Kovacs said.
China has been accused of deliberately undercutting prices to boost its share of the market for pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements. Kovacs said Chinese manufacturers have been building market share since the 1980s when the Chinese government poured economic resources into developing its food and pharmaceutical industries.
Manufacturers also look overseas for other types of ingredients.
When the people at Newman's Own Organics, the company started by Nell Newman, began planning to make an organic fig cookie, Chief Executive Peter Meehan said they had difficulty finding certain ingredients that met organic standards.
Take corn syrup. Many organic goodies are made without it, but Meehan said the company's Fig Newmans cookies taste better when they use a small amount of corn syrup to maintain the flavor and moisture of the cookie "jacket" that wraps around the fruit filling.
"We don't use much, but we need it. We tried all sorts of other syrups" that didn't work as well, he said. But despite the huge amounts of corn grown in the United States, Meehan said, he couldn't find a domestic source that was guaranteed free of genetically modified organisms.
The corn syrup in Fig Newmans comes from Austria.
To assure quality, Newman's Own Organics visits its suppliers' processing plants. The company also contracts with an independent firm that inspects and grades each production facility. And Meehan said the company maintains relationships with suppliers that it trusts, rather than constantly switching contracts in search of the lowest price.
Even the manufacturer of all-American Crest toothpaste does not use all U.S. ingredients.
Crest toothpastes are all produced in North America, said Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Tonia Elrod.
The "vast majority" of ingredients come from the United States, including many from P&G's own chemical division, she said. But the company obtains some of its hydrated silica - a mild abrasive used in many toothpastes - from Finland. It imports some of the sweetener known as sodium saccharin from China.
"Our products and ingredients undergo rigorous evaluation," Elrod said, adding that the company follows voluntary manufacturing standards developed by the FDA and industry. It also abides by rules of an independent organization called United States Pharmacopeia, which sets standards for pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter health products.
"It's not going out there saying I want the absolute cheapest, lowest price," she said. "We're going in there and working with that supplier to ensure that it meets the highest quality standards we have in the United States."
Not every importer does that. Last month, health officials found that tubes of a Chinese-made toothpaste containing traces of a poison used in antifreeze were sold to public hospitals and prisons in the southern United States.
The poison was probably added by a Chinese manufacturer as a cheaper substitute for harmless glycerin syrup, experts said. The toothpaste in that case had no connection to Crest. None of the products examined by the Mercury News were linked to any safety problems.
Kovacs and others familiar with the Chinese economy describe it as vast, loosely regulated and often corrupt, with tens of thousands of small entrepreneurs vying alongside huge conglomerates to sell their goods around the world. They say that has led to poor quality and worse.
Recent scandals over tainted pet food, toothpaste and seafood have China's government scrambling to show it is serious about food safety. In recent weeks, officials announced they have increased inspections, shut down some food plants and even executed the country's top food-safety official, after he was convicted of accepting bribes.
But Hubbard, the former FDA official, and other consumer advocates said the recent incidents show the need to bolster government food-safety programs in this country.
Increasing customs inspections might help, but Hubbard wouldn't stop there. He would like to expand on a model now used for imports of meat and poultry.
USDA checks
Meat-packing plants
overseas checked
The U.S. Department of Agriculture visits other countries to certify that meat-packing plants and local inspectors are operating under acceptable standards, before allowing those products into this country. But the FDA doesn't have the budget or legal authority to do the same for most other types of food.
Kovacs, the consultant, thinks the United States should require domestic manufacturers to keep records detailing where their ingredients come from, as the European Union does. The rules are intended to rein in unscrupulous distributors who might otherwise try to hide the source of suspect goods.
The United States relies too heavily on the food industry to police itself, agreed Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
And with imports from other countries likely to grow, DeWaal sat before a congressional subcommittee last week with a warning of her own: "The gaps in protection from this system are indeed alarming."
Contact Brandon Bailey at bbailey@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5022.
Carroll: American businesses must consider the 'China factor'
Business ethics
By Archie B. Carroll | Columnist | Story updated at 7:10 PM on Saturday, July 14, 2007
Clearly, China has become the world's manufacturer and supplier of products. Recent statistics reveal just how many of our products originate in China. China supplies more than half of all apple juice imported into the U.S., supplies 80 percent of the world's vitamin C,
produces about 80 percent of all toys sold in the U.S., exports more advanced technologies to the U.S. than any other country and supplies more than 20 percent of all seafood imported into the U.S.Last year, the U.S. had a $232 billion trade deficit with China. It is little wonder the business community now talks about the "China factor." But, the China factor now appears to mean more than just manufacturing and supplying products at exceptionally low prices. Now questions of safety have moved center stage in the discussion, as reports of substandard products, warnings and recalls are being reported.
Where does your food come from?
Food labels don't tell the whole inside story
By Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:07/22/2007 01:44:16 AM PDT
That loaf of Sara Lee bread on the grocery shelf in San Jose was made with flour from U.S. wheat. But the Illinois-based food giant uses honey and vitamin supplements from China.
While Paul Newman's daughter uses California figs in cookies made by her Aptos organic food company, she turns to Mexico and Austria for other ingredients.
And even though a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman described Crest toothpaste "as a truly American product," it uses additives from China and Finland.
Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.
"It's not just the stuff that says `Made in China.' It's the stuff in the stuff that says `Made in the USA,' " said Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "We're importing more and more of our food and we're inspecting almost none of it."
William Hubbard, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner who is advocating for a beefed-up food safety system in the United States, agreed.
"It's not which foods contain these ingredients, but which foods don't contain them," he said.
You may not know it from the label. Food makers aren't required to disclose the source of what goes into most products.
Some major food makers won't even talk about it. Campbell's and Kraft use ingredients from around the world, although representatives there refused to say which countries supply them.
"We don't want to be the poster child" for an article about imported ingredients, said Campbell's spokesman John Faulkner.
"We'd prefer to leave it that we're very confident about our practices."
Indeed, most European countries have high standards, Hubbard said. And not all Chinese products are of poor quality, said Peter Kovacs, a former executive with several national food companies who now owns a food-ingredient consulting business, the Kovacs Advisory Group.
Lower quality
Some American firms
lured by low costs
The lure of lower prices has led some American firms to accept lower-quality imports, Kovacs added. But he said most major food companies are rigorous about checking the ingredients they import, even if the government is not.
To understand why so many American products are a composite of ingredients from around the world, one need look no further than three products found on any household shelf: a tube of toothpaste, a bag of cookies and a loaf of bread.
In making a simple loaf of bread, the bakers at Sara Lee must look to multiple sources for some standard ingredients, said company spokesman Mark Goldman.
"You cannot meet consumer demand, and meet the demands of a growing business, without finding multiple sources for your ingredients," he said. "Global sourcing of ingredients has been and will continue to be a necessary practice."
While Kovacs said lower costs are often a reason for buying overseas, food makers also say they obtain ingredients from other countries because they can't find sufficient quantities in the United States.
As an example, Goldman said, "It's impossible to meet the demand for honey without sourcing outside the United States."
Domestic production has failed to keep pace with increased demand for honey in recent years. Most honey is still produced by relatively small beekeeping operations, and in recent years, many U.S. honeybee colonies have been devastated by parasitic mites and a mysterious disorder known as "colony collapse."
The China factor
Honey production
came under scrutiny
Meanwhile, China is now the world's largest producer of honey, though it's had problems. In 2002, Europe and the United States banned Chinese honey after finding some batches containing potentially harmful levels of an antibiotic that farmers may have used to help their bees resist disease. Imports resumed within months, however, after the Chinese government halted the antibiotic's use.
For its Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread, Sara Lee now buys honey from China, as well as Vietnam, India, Canada and several Latin American countries. Goldman said all of its sources must meet the company's quality standards.
The company's procurement experts visit suppliers around the world to ensure they follow health and safety rules, Goldman said. It requires suppliers to test and certify that ingredients meet specifications spelled out in purchasing contracts. Sara Lee also does its own testing.
In the United States, its central procurement office sets uniform standards for a nationwide network of bakeries.
Like other major U.S. firms, Sara Lee also looks to China for the B vitamins - thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid - and iron that are commonly used to enrich wheat flour. China has become a leading source of these additives, Goldman said, "as the industry has consolidated, limiting the number of available suppliers."
With lower production costs - in part because of cheap labor and minimal environmental regulations - China now dominates the world market in vitamin supplements and other chemical food additives, such as stabilizers and emulsifiers, that are used in American processed foods, Kovacs said.
China has been accused of deliberately undercutting prices to boost its share of the market for pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements. Kovacs said Chinese manufacturers have been building market share since the 1980s when the Chinese government poured economic resources into developing its food and pharmaceutical industries.
Manufacturers also look overseas for other types of ingredients.
When the people at Newman's Own Organics, the company started by Nell Newman, began planning to make an organic fig cookie, Chief Executive Peter Meehan said they had difficulty finding certain ingredients that met organic standards.
Take corn syrup. Many organic goodies are made without it, but Meehan said the company's Fig Newmans cookies taste better when they use a small amount of corn syrup to maintain the flavor and moisture of the cookie "jacket" that wraps around the fruit filling.
"We don't use much, but we need it. We tried all sorts of other syrups" that didn't work as well, he said. But despite the huge amounts of corn grown in the United States, Meehan said, he couldn't find a domestic source that was guaranteed free of genetically modified organisms.
The corn syrup in Fig Newmans comes from Austria.
To assure quality, Newman's Own Organics visits its suppliers' processing plants. The company also contracts with an independent firm that inspects and grades each production facility. And Meehan said the company maintains relationships with suppliers that it trusts, rather than constantly switching contracts in search of the lowest price.
Even the manufacturer of all-American Crest toothpaste does not use all U.S. ingredients.
Crest toothpastes are all produced in North America, said Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Tonia Elrod.
The "vast majority" of ingredients come from the United States, including many from P&G's own chemical division, she said. But the company obtains some of its hydrated silica - a mild abrasive used in many toothpastes - from Finland. It imports some of the sweetener known as sodium saccharin from China."Our products and ingredients undergo rigorous evaluation," Elrod said, adding that the company follows voluntary manufacturing standards developed by the FDA and industry. It also abides by rules of an independent organization called United States Pharmacopeia, which sets standards for pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter health products.
"It's not going out there saying I want the absolute cheapest, lowest price," she said. "We're going in there and working with that supplier to ensure that it meets the highest quality standards we have in the United States."
Not every importer does that. Last month, health officials found that tubes of a Chinese-made toothpaste containing traces of a poison used in antifreeze were sold to public hospitals and prisons in the southern United States.
The poison was probably added by a Chinese manufacturer as a cheaper substitute for harmless glycerin syrup, experts said. The toothpaste in that case had no connection to Crest. None of the products examined by the Mercury News were linked to any safety problems.
Kovacs and others familiar with the Chinese economy describe it as vast, loosely regulated and often corrupt, with tens of thousands of small entrepreneurs vying alongside huge conglomerates to sell their goods around the world. They say that has led to poor quality and worse.
Recent scandals over tainted pet food, toothpaste and seafood have China's government scrambling to show it is serious about food safety. In recent weeks, officials announced they have increased inspections, shut down some food plants and even executed the country's top food-safety official, after he was convicted of accepting bribes.
But Hubbard, the former FDA official, and other consumer advocates said the recent incidents show the need to bolster government food-safety programs in this country.
Increasing customs inspections might help, but Hubbard wouldn't stop there. He would like to expand on a model now used for imports of meat and poultry.
USDA checks
Meat-packing plants
overseas checked
The U.S. Department of Agriculture visits other countries to certify that meat-packing plants and local inspectors are operating under acceptable standards, before allowing those products into this country. But the FDA doesn't have the budget or legal authority to do the same for most other types of food.
Kovacs, the consultant, thinks the United States should require domestic manufacturers to keep records detailing where their ingredients come from, as the European Union does. The rules are intended to rein in unscrupulous distributors who might otherwise try to hide the source of suspect goods.
The United States relies too heavily on the food industry to police itself, agreed Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
And with imports from other countries likely to grow, DeWaal sat before a congressional subcommittee last week with a warning of her own: "The gaps in protection from this system are indeed alarming."
Contact Brandon Bailey at bbailey@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5022.
got to stop wishin' got to start fishin'....
Oops...Another recall.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e ... m80&src=ap
I wonder if the money Mattel saved by manufacturing in China will cover the cost of the recalls and lost reputation.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e ... m80&src=ap
I wonder if the money Mattel saved by manufacturing in China will cover the cost of the recalls and lost reputation.
Rub yours on me and I'll rub mine on you
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ScarletB
- On a Salty Piece of Land
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I heard that on the news this morning and thought the same thing. How do you like your cheap labor now? I have to believe $30MM hurt at least a little.Skibo wrote:Oops...Another recall.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e ... m80&src=ap
I wonder if the money Mattel saved by manufacturing in China will cover the cost of the recalls and lost reputation.
GW - 7/19
Great Northern MOTM - 7/20-21
Hershey Labor Day Weekend Show - 8/29
MOTM - Oct 28
Great Northern MOTM - 7/20-21
Hershey Labor Day Weekend Show - 8/29
MOTM - Oct 28
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Tequila Revenge
- Lester Polyester
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China imports almost all of the "juice concentrate" you read on the back of labels. Our juice must not be as good.Skibo wrote:Thank you TR. I did not realize how much China exported so much food. Well you know with over 1 billion citizens and the smaller land mass than the US, figured they would be feeding their own instead of the rest of the world.
got to stop wishin' got to start fishin'....
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Tequila Revenge
- Lester Polyester
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ScarletB wrote:I heard that on the news this morning and thought the same thing. How do you like your cheap labor now? I have to believe $30MM hurt at least a little.Skibo wrote:Oops...Another recall.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e ... m80&src=ap
I wonder if the money Mattel saved by manufacturing in China will cover the cost of the recalls and lost reputation.
I was thinking about that too. Yesterday I almost bought a Patagonia shirt that was on sale for $52.00. The regular price was around $85.00. Patagonis stuff wears like iron and lasts forever. I read the label, "Made In China." I put the shirt back on the rack and thought about how Patagonia "sells" on it's social and ecological view points and trying to figure how they can justify mgf in China. Seems like a contradiction, unless if you only look at the $$$$$$$$$$$.
got to stop wishin' got to start fishin'....
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12vmanRick
- Here We Are
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- Contact:
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Tequila Revenge
- Lester Polyester
- Posts: 7634
- Joined: February 16, 2005 7:07 pm
- Favorite Boat Drink: cubra libre
- Location: Living in a van down by the river
Hotel toothpaste from China recalled
Antifreeze chemical found in tubes
UNNATI GANDHI
August 14, 2007
Canadian travellers are being asked to go through their suitcases and medicine cabinets after a recall was issued yesterday for potentially toxic Chinese-made toothpaste distributed through hotels around the world, including some in Canada.
The scare is the latest in a series of recalls involving products made in China, including nearly a million toys with paint that is feared to have high levels of lead.
Gilchrist & Soames, an Indianapolis-based company that supplies toiletries to upscale hotels, said yesterday it was voluntarily recalling its complimentary tubes of toothpaste after independent tests showed some samples contained diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. If ingested, DEG can cause nausea, stomach pain, kidney failure, breathing problems and even death, according to Health Canada.
The 18-millilitre tubes, which have the brand name "Gilchrist & Soames" on them, were manufactured by Ming Fai Enterprises International Co. in China and sold to 424 hotels around the world, including 12 in Canada, according to Health Canada. So far, there have been no reports of poisoning from the toothpaste here or in the United States.
Cindy Duran, a company spokesperson, said the company began working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June after the federal agency sent out an alert that some Chinese-made toothpaste contained DEG. At least one test came back positive, prompting the company to quarantine its supplies of the toothpaste and informing affected hotels.
OOPS!
Antifreeze chemical found in tubes
UNNATI GANDHI
August 14, 2007
Canadian travellers are being asked to go through their suitcases and medicine cabinets after a recall was issued yesterday for potentially toxic Chinese-made toothpaste distributed through hotels around the world, including some in Canada.
The scare is the latest in a series of recalls involving products made in China, including nearly a million toys with paint that is feared to have high levels of lead.
Gilchrist & Soames, an Indianapolis-based company that supplies toiletries to upscale hotels, said yesterday it was voluntarily recalling its complimentary tubes of toothpaste after independent tests showed some samples contained diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. If ingested, DEG can cause nausea, stomach pain, kidney failure, breathing problems and even death, according to Health Canada.
The 18-millilitre tubes, which have the brand name "Gilchrist & Soames" on them, were manufactured by Ming Fai Enterprises International Co. in China and sold to 424 hotels around the world, including 12 in Canada, according to Health Canada. So far, there have been no reports of poisoning from the toothpaste here or in the United States.
Cindy Duran, a company spokesperson, said the company began working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June after the federal agency sent out an alert that some Chinese-made toothpaste contained DEG. At least one test came back positive, prompting the company to quarantine its supplies of the toothpaste and informing affected hotels.
OOPS!
got to stop wishin' got to start fishin'....
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RinglingRingling
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G&S is what they use in Embassy Suites, I think. I know I have had some of their shampoo. Maybe this explains why I am slowly becoming "follically-challenged"Tequila Revenge wrote:Hotel toothpaste from China recalled
Antifreeze chemical found in tubes
UNNATI GANDHI
August 14, 2007
Canadian travellers are being asked to go through their suitcases and medicine cabinets after a recall was issued yesterday for potentially toxic Chinese-made toothpaste distributed through hotels around the world, including some in Canada.
The scare is the latest in a series of recalls involving products made in China, including nearly a million toys with paint that is feared to have high levels of lead.
Gilchrist & Soames, an Indianapolis-based company that supplies toiletries to upscale hotels, said yesterday it was voluntarily recalling its complimentary tubes of toothpaste after independent tests showed some samples contained diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. If ingested, DEG can cause nausea, stomach pain, kidney failure, breathing problems and even death, according to Health Canada.
The 18-millilitre tubes, which have the brand name "Gilchrist & Soames" on them, were manufactured by Ming Fai Enterprises International Co. in China and sold to 424 hotels around the world, including 12 in Canada, according to Health Canada. So far, there have been no reports of poisoning from the toothpaste here or in the United States.
Cindy Duran, a company spokesperson, said the company began working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June after the federal agency sent out an alert that some Chinese-made toothpaste contained DEG. At least one test came back positive, prompting the company to quarantine its supplies of the toothpaste and informing affected hotels.
OOPS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODJMJgSJWw
I was a lifeguard until that blue kid got me fired.
http://www.buffettnews.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-7695
I was a lifeguard until that blue kid got me fired.
http://www.buffettnews.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-7695
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Phinnesota
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flyboy55
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It would be interesting to see this whole issue dealt with in the larger context of free trade agreements and the phenomenon of globalization.
Folks who support the free market ideology, especially in regards to international trade, have never successfully answered the question of what 'down-sized' employees in this country are supposed to do when companies export their jobs out of the country.
I remember hearing that our strength was the 'knowledge economy' and we would end up selling our 'brains' to the world instead our 'brawn'. However, as we've all discovered, we aren't the only nation with 'brains' and all those knowledge economy jobs are also being done in places like India, China and Malaysia. (Hello Tech Support? My computer's frozen and I'm staring at the 'blue screen of death')
The argument that 'we must compete' with other nations around the world doesn't hold water when you realize that workers in many parts of the world are quite happy to earn a few dollars a day. How do you compete with that?
Also, many corporations learned long ago that it is much more profitable to manufacture goods in countries with little or no protection for workers, and little or no manufacturing/product safety regulation.
I am frustrated with the way these issues are dealt with, in that they are treated by the media and domestic government regulatory bodies as anomalies and one-time mistakes, or blamed on corrupt factory managers in some other part of the world.
On the contrary, I think what we are seeing with product recalls (many of which began with European countries' government regulatory bodies), poisoned animal feeds, etc is the true nature of free trade as it is currently constituted.
With regard to Adam Smith, who coined the phrase "the invisible hand of the marketplace" centuries ago, the kind of world he lived in and the free trade he envisioned placed more concern on workers lives and well-being than we currently do. Those who like to quote him and leave that part out either haven't read him, or are being dishonest.
If you blame the loss of American jobs on a lack of competitiveness due to unionized workers here in the U.S., then you've been successfully sold a bill of goods by the same corporations who are taking your money on a daily basis.
Folks who support the free market ideology, especially in regards to international trade, have never successfully answered the question of what 'down-sized' employees in this country are supposed to do when companies export their jobs out of the country.
I remember hearing that our strength was the 'knowledge economy' and we would end up selling our 'brains' to the world instead our 'brawn'. However, as we've all discovered, we aren't the only nation with 'brains' and all those knowledge economy jobs are also being done in places like India, China and Malaysia. (Hello Tech Support? My computer's frozen and I'm staring at the 'blue screen of death')
The argument that 'we must compete' with other nations around the world doesn't hold water when you realize that workers in many parts of the world are quite happy to earn a few dollars a day. How do you compete with that?
Also, many corporations learned long ago that it is much more profitable to manufacture goods in countries with little or no protection for workers, and little or no manufacturing/product safety regulation.
I am frustrated with the way these issues are dealt with, in that they are treated by the media and domestic government regulatory bodies as anomalies and one-time mistakes, or blamed on corrupt factory managers in some other part of the world.
On the contrary, I think what we are seeing with product recalls (many of which began with European countries' government regulatory bodies), poisoned animal feeds, etc is the true nature of free trade as it is currently constituted.
With regard to Adam Smith, who coined the phrase "the invisible hand of the marketplace" centuries ago, the kind of world he lived in and the free trade he envisioned placed more concern on workers lives and well-being than we currently do. Those who like to quote him and leave that part out either haven't read him, or are being dishonest.
If you blame the loss of American jobs on a lack of competitiveness due to unionized workers here in the U.S., then you've been successfully sold a bill of goods by the same corporations who are taking your money on a daily basis.
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RinglingRingling
- Last Man Standing
- Posts: 53938
- Joined: May 30, 2004 3:12 pm
- Favorite Buffett Song: Glory Days
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- Favorite Boat Drink: Landshark, and Margaritaville products...
- Location: Where payphones all are ringing
You mean the span from 1880 to 1932 wasn't a golden age for US workers.....flyboy55 wrote:It would be interesting to see this whole issue dealt with in the larger context of free trade agreements and the phenomenon of globalization.
Folks who support the free market ideology, especially in regards to international trade, have never successfully answered the question of what 'down-sized' employees in this country are supposed to do when companies export their jobs out of the country.
I remember hearing that our strength was the 'knowledge economy' and we would end up selling our 'brains' to the world instead our 'brawn'. However, as we've all discovered, we aren't the only nation with 'brains' and all those knowledge economy jobs are also being done in places like India, China and Malaysia. (Hello Tech Support? My computer's frozen and I'm staring at the 'blue screen of death')
The argument that 'we must compete' with other nations around the world doesn't hold water when you realize that workers in many parts of the world are quite happy to earn a few dollars a day. How do you compete with that?
Also, many corporations learned long ago that it is much more profitable to manufacture goods in countries with little or no protection for workers, and little or no manufacturing/product safety regulation.
I am frustrated with the way these issues are dealt with, in that they are treated by the media and domestic government regulatory bodies as anomalies and one-time mistakes, or blamed on corrupt factory managers in some other part of the world.
On the contrary, I think what we are seeing with product recalls (many of which began with European countries' government regulatory bodies), poisoned animal feeds, etc is the true nature of free trade as it is currently constituted.
With regard to Adam Smith, who coined the phrase "the invisible hand of the marketplace" centuries ago, the kind of world he lived in and the free trade he envisioned placed more concern on workers lives and well-being than we currently do. Those who like to quote him and leave that part out either haven't read him, or are being dishonest.
If you blame the loss of American jobs on a lack of competitiveness due to unionized workers here in the U.S., then you've been successfully sold a bill of goods by the same corporations who are taking your money on a daily basis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODJMJgSJWw
I was a lifeguard until that blue kid got me fired.
http://www.buffettnews.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-7695
I was a lifeguard until that blue kid got me fired.
http://www.buffettnews.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-7695
Unions? what unions? The UAW is the only large union left in manufacturing. unfortunately for them the foreign product is much better than theirs.citcat wrote:If the unions don't jump on this, with a big campaign for American-made goods, they have lost their minds.
Rub yours on me and I'll rub mine on you
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RinglingRingling
- Last Man Standing
- Posts: 53938
- Joined: May 30, 2004 3:12 pm
- Favorite Buffett Song: Glory Days
- Number of Concerts: 0
- Favorite Boat Drink: Landshark, and Margaritaville products...
- Location: Where payphones all are ringing
say what? that may have been the case 20 years ago, but GM makes a pretty good product these days.Skibo wrote:Unions? what unions? The UAW is the only large union left in manufacturing. unfortunately for them the foreign product is much better than theirs.citcat wrote:If the unions don't jump on this, with a big campaign for American-made goods, they have lost their minds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODJMJgSJWw
I was a lifeguard until that blue kid got me fired.
http://www.buffettnews.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-7695
I was a lifeguard until that blue kid got me fired.
http://www.buffettnews.com/gallery/disp ... ?pos=-7695
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flyboy55
- I Love the Now!
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- Joined: August 29, 2005 11:05 pm
- Number of Concerts: 3
- Location: On the Road . . .
For the most part, those unionized workers who used to manufacture American-made products don't exist in this country anymore, and the few unionized workers left don't have the resources required.citcat wrote:If the unions don't jump on this, with a big campaign for American-made goods, they have lost their minds.
The percentage of workers in this country who are unionized has been dropping steadily for at least three decades.
In the last year for which Dept of Labor statistics are available (2006), as a percentage of all wage and salary earners (excluding self-employed) over the age of 16, unionized workers make up just 12.0% of the work force.
Put the other way around, 88.0% of the domestic work force in non-union.
This is a far cry from what the Greatest Generation faced when they came back from winning World War II and built the most prosperous economy in the world, while holding down good middle class unionized jobs that came with benefits.
The last three decades have seen an ongoing war on the middle class and have seen most of those jobs go overseas to places where $5 a day is a small fortune.
Some may blame unions for chasing all the jobs out of the country, but how are you going to keep any jobs in the country when someone somewhere in the world is willing to do them for a fraction of what a living wage is in this country?
I blame corporations and their enablers in government who still want and expect Americans to buy all that stuff, they just don't want to pay Americans to build all that stuff.
Yeah, and the asians and europeans make very good products. I have 3 GM vehicles in the driveway right now between them there are 9 recalls and too many stupid problems to mention. The most recent one was a concession with my wife because she didn't like the 'image' of the German car I picked out for her. New car next year will be European.RinglingRingling wrote:
say what? that may have been the case 20 years ago, but GM makes a pretty good product these days.
Rub yours on me and I'll rub mine on you