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One objective at Global Nation is to uncover unscrupulous business practices. Our primary focus is on those who profit from dangerous or inferior goods; with a good being defined as a product or service. How we do this is quite simple: through exposure. Today, all eyes are on China, whose “states secrets system is dangerous to the health of people not only in China but also worldwide, and undermines healthy governance and rule of law.” It is apparent, China is not just poisoning American pets out of greed, but the entire planet.

As most of the world knows, this past March millions of cans of pet food was recalled from North American pet stores when thousands of animals died from kidney damage after eating tainted food. According to the FDA, the food contained the chemical melamine. In a statement on ChemNutra’s website: “We are concerned that we may have been the victim of deliberate and mercenary contamination for the purpose of making the wheat gluten we purchased appear to have a higher protein content than it did.” In fact, the wheat gluten may not have had any protein at all.

What is more frightening, this practice, which to me is fraud, is customary in China. According the the New York Times,

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.” from the New York Times

Last year nearly 1,000 people in Panama were killed from cough syrup and other anti-allergy medicines. It was found that additives used in the compounding process were imported from China which contained diethylene glycol (DEG), more commonly known as anti-freeze. “Exposure to large amounts of DEG can damage the kidneys, heart, and nervous system.”

This week, toothpaste has been banned for the same reasons; it was found to contain DEG. It is further insulting to learn the types of stores buying this toothpaste are not regular supermarkets, but low priced dollar and discount stores; businesses that appeal to low income people. Chasing after the lowest price appears to come at a high price, loss of life.

What we don’t know yet is whether toothpaste not sold in the retail environment, but distributed to hospitals, nursing homes, schools, airlines, hotels and other places where the product is supplied unbranded and unlabeled, is also contaminated. Keep in mind, people in hospitals and nursing are already fragile. If they become exposed to these toxic chemicals the potential for disaster increases.

Most likely this is only the tip of the iceberg. China has never been highly regarded for respecting human or animal rights. So, at the very least we can expect to see these tainted products, products now banned in western nations, to not be destroyed, but to get dumped into third-world and emerging nations. In the end, will this fraud harm their GDP? Will China’s reputation be sufficiently damaged to result in a change to food safety policy? I don’t know. Hopefully, this will be their wake-up call. If not, I am sure another emerging nation has their eye on the prize; becoming the world’s most favored manufacturer.