China in the news today

[mercator]

1.

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has arrested the manager of a factory which used grease from swill, sewage and recycled industrial oil to make edible lard, a Chinese newspaper said on Monday in the latest health scare to hit the country.

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Health officials also detected "toxic pesticide" in lard produced by the Fanchang Grease Factory in Taizhou, in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, the Shanghai Daily said.

 

"They wholesaled the product to retailers across the country, and the retailers sold it to clients, including hotels and restaurants," the paper said.

 

Since opening in September 2005, the plant had bought more than 170 metric tons of recycled grease to produce an average of six metric tons of lard daily. A night-time raid found 37,600 kg of raw materials and 5,300 kg of lard, the paper said.

 

Billions of dollars worth of counterfeit and substandard goods, from fake liquor to luxury handbags, are produced every year in China.

 

In 2004, a major health scandal erupted when China revealed that at least 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the country's impoverished eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk powder.

 

Last week, several fish farms in eastern Shandong province breeding turbot, a popular type of flatfish, were fined and ordered to suspend sales after traces of cancer-causing chemicals including malachite green were detected in samples.

 

Authorities in several cities last month found Sudan IV, a cancer-causing industrial dye, in "red-yolk" duck eggs sold to poultry farmers who had mixed it with feed.

 

Red yolks are regarded as a sign of extra nutrition, thus making them more expensive.

 

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2.

 

90 percent of Chinese cities have polluted groundwater

 

By IANS

Saturday December 2, 04:23 PM

 

Beijing, Dec 2 (DPA) Groundwater in about 90 percent of Chinese cities is polluted, with those in northern and eastern areas worst affected, a senior environmental official said.

 

An increasing number of groundwater samples contain toxic substances, despite a 2004 national survey of urban and rural areas finding that 63 percent of underground water was suitable for drinking, a news report quoted Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.

 

'It seems rosy because the survey only tests the inorganic matter in groundwater, but now more organic substances are culprits in groundwater pollution and it costs more to test organic matter,' geologist Wen Dongguang said.

 

Groundwater constitutes about one-third of China's freshwater resources, supplying about 70 percent of drinking water and 40 percent of water for irrigation, the report said.

 

'China's groundwater management is about 10 to 20 years behind the world's most advanced levels,' said Yin Yueping, another geologist.

 

Subsidence from construction, mining, groundwater exploitation and other causes has affected about 50 eastern and northern cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Taiyuan, which have all sunk by more than 2 metres in the last 100 years.

 

The subsidence makes pollution of groundwater more likely in these cities, Yin said.

 

Seawater has also polluted water supplies in many coastal areas, because of 'unbridled exploitation of groundwater'.

 

In the eastern Bohai Gulf, close to Tianjin, seawater invades 62 square kilometres of groundwater annually, the report quoted a recent survey.

 

The report is the latest in a series to document the environmental cost of China's rapid economic growth over the last 25 years.

 

Another report earlier this year estimated that about 340 million of China's 1.3 billion people lack access to safe drinking water supplies

[Dennis143]

Those are very disturbing reports. Makes one wonder what health affects will be showing up in the next 20 years or so. The true price they may have to pay for their unrestricted and unregulated growth may be their own lives. Very sad and I wonder if the citizenry really know the full truth and scope of these.

 

Also makes me wonder why anyone would risk retiring there.

[Feathers268]

Just shows greed has no nationality and a lack of respect for others in making a buck, or yuan, can happen anywhere.

[Tony_onrock]

Rule 1. Don't eat farm raise fish.

Rule 2. Try not to eat green leafy vegetables

Rule 3. Don't feed the baby milk powder, and if you have to, buy only imported ones from big chain markets (HK or German or US owned).

Rule 4. Drink only purified water and stick to a brand that is reliable.

Rule 5. Be prepared to get cancer no matter what precaution you take.

[Urkidding]

Rule 1. Don't eat farm raise fish.

 

 

In case you don¡¯t know it¡­ a LOT and I mean a lot fish, shrimp and crab are now imported from China. I see it all the time in the major grocery stores here locally. Next time you go ask and they will tell you where it¡¯s from!

[Dan R]

The real problem is few stories are publicized and this exists world wide. Some is with government blessings and some without. After Mad Cow was discovered, and the practise of using Sheep byproducts as feed for cattle was outlawed, farmers in the U.S. & England continued to use it because it was so darn cheap.

 

Man is the only creature smart enough to make the world better for all, but greedy enough to destroy it for hisself,

[Robert S.]

I wish the Chinese govt would wake up and institute something like a Food and Drug Administration, or make theirs stronger if they have one. And they need an Environmental Protection Agency. But, the central govt does not like to overrule the provincial and local officials so it seems hopeless.