northern redbelly dace
Originally uploaded by Ardea.

China's Export Woes - Seafood
The Washington Post reports China exports farm-raised seafood contaminated with antibiotics and carcinogens despite repeated warnings and even visits to farms. The FDA now requires inspection of shrimp, eel, catfish, basa and dace from China before they are sold.

The chemicals found in the seafood were "nitrofurans detected in shrimp, malachite green detected in dace, eel and catfish and basa, and gentian violet detected in eel and catfish. In addition, fluoroquinolones were found in catfish and basa."

Again, the levels are just detectable but should not be present in the firs place.

Poison for Your Pearly Whites
China is really killing it's international reputation. Toothpaste labeled "Excel" & "Mr. Cool" containing the poison diethylene glycol (DEG) was confiscated in Nicaragua. Not surprisingly the toothpaste was smuggled from Panama (note post regarding poisoning in Panama).

The FDA has issued warning and stopped imports of Chinese toothpaste into the U.S. The Associate Press reports that the former head of the China's FDA was sentenced to death four days ago (Tues., May 29, 2007) for taking bribes to allow companies to bypass drug regulations. A senior official of China said the levels of DEG were not harmful. However, the U.S. FDA rightly notes that such a poison does not even belong in toothpaste.