I was just a kid on September 29, 1982 when a serial killer contaminated a bottle of Tylenol with cyanide, poisoning seven fatally and causing nationwide panic.  Practically every child in America was afraid of having a headache or taking Tylenol for a fever.  Authorities reacted swiftly, banning all gel-caps from being sold and passing new laws on tamper resistant products.  Food and drug manufacturers for their part did their best to ensure that no poison could ever reach their products by sealing foods in tighter-than-ever packaging.

How times have changed.  Now people worry whether poison is pre-packaged inside the products and whether the manufacturer didn’t intentionally put it there.

The year 2007 was the watershed for breaking the notion of safe food and drugs apart, as we saw how rapid economic progress and uneven oversight caused a trail of disaster, death, and tragedy in the global market.  

Looking in China’s direction, many blame the government for their corruption and lack of regulation.  This is right on the mark but only half revealing.  The irony of China’s economy is not that it is choked by Communist party obstruction, but rather, that it is so liberated that anarchy rules. 

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is a prophetic 20th Century book that demands attention from every 21st Century Chinese because their issues are the same as the ones Americans tackled on their economic rise.   In this frightening Hobbesian world of man-vs-man, ruthless, amoral con men pervert capitalism for self-gain. 

What that meant then as now is the fact that there are people out there in the free market who don’t give a damn if babies die resulting from their chicanery, as long as they can somehow get away with it rich and clear. 

And many babies have died.  This has led to world outrage but perhaps not enough to make a difference yet.  A short look into the recent past and we see the following pattern emerging from some Chinese suppliers: 

–June 2007, Poisoned medicine:  Diethylene glycol is mixed into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine, leading to 100 confirmed deaths in Panama, and reported deaths throughout Haiti, Bangladesh, Argentina, Nigeria, and India.

–March 2007, Pet food:  In North America, Europe, and South Africa cat and dog foods produced by suppliers in China are widely recalled on reports of deaths and illness associated with renal failure.  The suspect ingredient is melamine, a cheap coal based additive often surreptitiously added instead of protein to save money / reap profits.

–April 2007, Animal feed:  Authorities determine that animal feed is also adulterated, leading many to acknowledge for the first time that the human food supply was indeed contaminated with trace amounts of melamine. 

–May 2007, Tainted toothpaste:  A Panamanian, Eduardo Arias, glances at a tube of toothpaste only to realize that one of the ingredients, diethylene glycol, a derivative of antifreeze, should not be there.  He notified authorities, promptly setting off a worldwide chain of recalls across 34 countries.   

–September 2007, Lead paint in toys:  Mattel, the world’s largest toy maker, frantically makes multiple product recalls upon revelations that its toys contain dangerously high levels of lead paint.  Why did their manufacturers in China do this?  You guessed it.  Because it is cheaper.

–March 2008, counterfeit Heparin: With over 800 reported serious injuries, there were 81 confirmed deaths reported at U.S. hospitals due to injections of a medical, life-saving blood thinner that was essentially fake.  It contained a shellfish derivative that was used to mimic Heparin in tests but did not perform any therapeutic benefits.

–September 2008, Melamine in milk and baby formula:  Over a dozen deaths from malnutrition, over 53,000 illnesses, and 12,800 hospitalizations.  Again, melamine is used here by shady manufacturers to mimic protein at a cheap price.

–October 2008, Melamine in chocolates / crackers:  In Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea, products like the popular Ritz cheese crackers and chocolates from M&Ms to Snickers to Kit Kats have been discovered to contain high levels of melamine.  See just one list here.

It’s unfortunate that China has, after a spectacular Olympics, become an easy bogeyman and target for world outrage.  Rational citizens know that this is not the outcome of intentional public policy, but rather the lack of one and surely a gaping lack of regulatory oversight.   China has reacted by at times being defensive and obstructionist when American investigators tried to locate counterfeit heparin makers, and at other times cruelly Hammurabian as when they executed Zheng Xiaoyu, who from 1998-2005 headed the State Food & Drug Administration.

This problem will not go away soon.  And surely it will appear from other emerging economies, as South Korea has already banned milk products similarly tainted from New Zealand.  The questions and the chorus grows larger:

How can we be safe if food and drugs are at risk?  How can we keep babies safe?  Can I ever look at a Kit Kat the same way?  Does that needle really contain helpful drugs?  How can we punish wrongdoers?  What incentives can be made to encourage what should already be moral, lawful conduct in the free market?

What can be done is boycott products wholesale, but this can be futile as one South Korea newspaper has already pointed out. 

For me personally, I’m going to try to buy products from developed nations.  Fruits and veggies imported from California don’t sound too bad, regardless of the price.  My pet, in the near future, will be served cooked meals from me rather than Science Diet.  And I am giving up crackers and all chocolates that aren’t labeled Godiva.  It sounds like an expensive proposition, but then again, my life is something I value.

–Alex is a graduate student of economics at a university in Seoul, Korea

Discuss below what should be done or what you’re going to do about it!

Similar Posts:

• Health | Rise in Kidney Stones in U.S. Kids
• Photo | Fake Goods Land in Korea
• National Debt Clock Out of Digits
• Kids! Buy Yourself a Diet!