Article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Made in China (buyer beware). Penalties for non-compliance might be increasing in the United States:
Last week alone the list included glassware from Pier 1, with 21 reports of cracked or broken glass; reclining chairs blamed in eight injuries; car tires blamed in two deaths; and fish and shrimp that the government says could cause cancer.
These products, and many more, have at least one thing in common: All were imported, and most were made in China.
Regulators say some cases involved outright fraud.
The dog food and toothpaste were adulterated with ingredients designed to fool any testers. Melamine in the dog food gave false high protein readings, and the toothpaste substituted a cheaper ingredient that is similar to brake fluid.
“I think it’s going to be a wake up call,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says of the lengthening list of recalls.
As for China, he says, it leads the world in food exports that are recalled.
“I don’t believe they are performing to acceptable 21st century standards for health and safety,” Durbin said. As chairman of a Senate appropriations subcommittee, Durbin is pushing regulatory agencies to ramp up fines for safety violations and add critically needed inspectors.
The full article here: Made in China (buyer beware).