U.S. recalls 3 more Chinese kids products

A former department head at China's drug regulation agency was sentenced to death Friday on bribery charges, as U.S. regulators ordered a recall of three more Chinese-made products deemed dangerous to children.

The developments were the latest in widening concerns about the safety of Chinese goods both at home and abroad.

Cao Wenzhuang, a department director at the State Food and Drug Administration, was given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve on charges of accepting bribes and neglecting official duties, said his lawyer, Gao Zicheng.

While the sentence was unusually harsh given the charges, such suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

Cao, who oversaw the pharmaceutical registration department, had been secretary to Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of the agency, in the 1980s. Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

In the pharmaceuticals department, Cao, 45, had the power to approve pharmaceutical production in China from 2002 to 2006.

He was charged with accepting $307,000 in bribes from two medical companies, which were based in Jilin and Guangdong provinces and were seeking approval to sell their products. He also was charged with neglecting his duties in approving drugs.

In its judgment, the Beijing No. 1 People's Intermediate Court said the death penalty was warranted given the "huge bribes involved, and his refusal to confess ... and reluctance to return the money," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

But he was given a two-year reprieve because he provided evidence that helped with the investigation of other cases, Xinhua said. It gave no details.

"Cao does not admit to taking any bribes," Gao, the lawyer, said in a telephone interview. It was not immediately clear if Cao would appeal.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday three recalls, covering jewelry that the agency said could cause lead poisoning. They also covered a magnetic building set and plastic castles with small parts, which it said could choke children.

About 20,000 sets of Essentials for Kids Jewelry, sold by Future Industries of Cliffwood Beach, N.J., were recalled because the metal jewelry sets contain high levels of lead that can be toxic if ingested by young children, the agency said.

Additionally, 800 Mag Stix Magnetic Building Sets sold by Kipp Brothers of Carmel, Ind., and 68,000 Shape Sorting Toy Castles sold by Infantino LLC, of San Diego were pulled because they posed choking hazards to young children.

The U.S. agency routinely issues such recalls. Since a large share of products sold in the U.S. are made in China, the majority of the recalls involve Chinese-made products.

The orders add to the lengthening list of recent U.S. government actions to ban, recall or restrict Chinese imports - from juice to toothpaste - because they are suspected of containing high levels of toxins.

China has responded by stepping up enforcement of health and safety rules in the export industries that drive its economic growth. But Beijing also heatedly defends its record as a supplier of reliable goods, and has complained that safety warnings may be driven by protectionism.

The Health Ministry said inspectors across the country seized five types of diet supplements containing banned substances such as phenolphthalein, a potentially cancer-causing laxative.

"The capsules were harmful to the health of the consumer," the ministry said on its Web site Thursday. It did not give the amount seized, but said there will be a recall and the health licenses of the companies have been revoked.

The country is currently overhauling its chaotic food and drug safety mechanisms, which are handicapped by competition between government agencies, murky laws and corruption.

Under Zheng's 1998-2005 tenure as top drug regulator, his agency approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, state media have reported.

His death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, which is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined - and likely indicates the leadership's determination to confront the recent scares involving unsafe food and drugs.

On Thursday, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court also handed down verdicts for four other drug supervision officials involved in corruption cases.

Xinhua said Wang Guorong, former secretary-general of a think tank in charge of setting up drug standards, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes.

Li Zhiyong, another official in the think tank, along with Lu Aiying and Ma Teng, two officials with the State Food and Drug Administration, were given jail terms of up to 15 years on graft charges, Xinhua said without giving details.

And who at Merck or the FDA gets even a slap on the wrist for the many drugs let loose on us that have proved lethal and had to be recalled - like, for one example: vioxx and celebrex - many links and estimated tens of thousands of deaths just from these two - and yet the only person, it would seem, that has been punished it the one who blew the whistle. What’s wrong with this picture?

And an estimated from 195,000 to 300,000 people die in our hospitals every year from ‘accidents’ and other causes not related to their illness.

http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/01/vioxx-death-estimate-revised-upwards.html

Where is the hue and cry? Where are the bleeding hearts? Where is the Human Rights Watch? Where are the protesters in front of the hospitals? Where are the investigations from congress - oh, never mind, they’re still too busy with Bush-hate and counting the numbers of our troop deaths. (That means that they are not as concerned about Americans dying as they are to use our brave troops as a means to their political ends. Is there anything more vile?)

So Merck is paying $259 million because a guy died, and the jury couldn’t understand that there’s no evidence that Vioxx could have caused it. Merck argued that Vioxx couldn’t have caused Mr. Ernst’s death because, according to his death certificate, he died of an arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat, not a heart attack. While scientific evidence suggests Vioxx can promote blood clots leading to a heart attack, no data have linked the drug with arrhythmias. Jurors who voted against Merck said much of the science sailed right over their heads. “Whenever Merck was up there, it was like wah, wah, wah,” said juror John Ostrom, imitating the sounds Charlie Brown’s teacher makes in the television cartoon. “We didn’t know what the heck they were talking about.” I know some of my leftist readers think this isn’t a problem because Merck is an evil corporation. But if this logic holds up in court to convict an evil corporation, there is no reason why it can’t be used against an individual. You’ve got an alibi? Wah wah wah. DNA exonerates you? Wah wah wah. Your rights were violated? Wah wah wah. Go to jail, egghead

From http://digamma.net/notes/index.php/archives/2005/08/

Millions of people are alive with diseases like Diabetes, HIV, high blood pressure only because of the "evil" American corporations have invented medicines to keep them alive .

I know several people who are being kept alive with drugs from the "evil" corporations including some of my family.

Also I have never had medical problems , perfectly healthy and I have eaten millions of things from these evil corporations. Never had a problem except once in a blue moon some thing might be a little bad. But I have senses like smell and sight to tell me if something is wrong. So I have never had problems with food. If any of you are scared to buy any food just buy computers from China etc. and grow your own food. I bought a computer from China and it works great.

Also you can do your own research on the Internet on any food, company, ingredients, medicines etc. Time to start solving your own problems and taking responsibility for your own health instead of blaming others, whining,suing and asking for the government to "do something". That's like asking thug to save you from a car salesman. You have a mind and can research anything on the internet. use it.

You can do anything if you set your mind to it. Persistence is the key.Solve your own problems instead of waiting for the government to solve them for you. If you wait for the government to do something for you wait for the government to do something to you.

And by you I mean in general not the poster I'm replying to but to those that behave like this.

So Merck is paying $259 million because a guy died, and the jury couldn’t understand that there’s no evidence that Vioxx could have caused it. Merck argued that Vioxx couldn’t have caused Mr. Ernst’s death because, according to his death certificate, he died of an arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat, not a heart attack. While scientific evidence suggests Vioxx can promote blood clots leading to a heart attack, no data have linked the drug with arrhythmias. Jurors who voted against Merck said much of the science sailed right over their heads. “Whenever Merck was up there, it was like wah, wah, wah,” said juror John Ostrom, imitating the sounds Charlie Brown’s teacher makes in the television cartoon. “We didn’t know what the heck they were talking about.” I know some of my leftist readers think this isn’t a problem because Merck is an evil corporation. But if this logic holds up in court to convict an evil corporation, there is no reason why it can’t be used against an individual. You’ve got an alibi? Wah wah wah. DNA exonerates you? Wah wah wah. Your rights were violated? Wah wah wah. Go to jail, egghead

From http://digamma.net/notes/index.php/archives/2005/08/

Millions of people are alive with diseases like Diabetes, HIV, high blood pressure only because of the "evil" American corporations have invented medicines to keep them alive .

I know several people who are being kept alive with drugs from the "evil" corporations including some of my family.

And by you I mean in general not the poster I'm replying to but to those that behave like this.

Also I don't believe any of this global warming hysteria or all this other hysteria in the liberal media.They are trying to scare people senseless with imaginary crises after crises so that people run to the government for help and give up all their rights,money,and freedom to the government. This is why they push the global warming lie. why wouldn't they push so many of these recent hysterical stories about so many things in the food supply that are going to kills us. yeah right. I can research things myself and I don't trust government politicians, the media or government agencies or anything they say. I haven't had a single problem. I'm going to go eat some more spinach that they said was so bad. They said one person died of e-coli tainted spinach? Even if true more people died slipping in their bathubs today not to mention more people died TODAY in car accidents or being murdered by some thug or illegal alien that the government is suppposed to be protecting us against.

well, just golly gee whiz...

You seem to have read a lot between the lines of my post that weren't there.

as it happens, I have been growing my own food, (and I gather fiddleheads, dandelions and other wild forage come spring,) doing my research and using a combination of using healthy foods, herbs and supplements - and refusing to take more than one prescription drug that has been prescribed to me. I have been doing this for years - decades, actually. (I have 15 grandkids.)

In addition, I am a writer, and have shared my findings and what works for me with them for nigh 20 years now. I eat organic - and meat with BONES (wont go into the reasons here about the many benefits of that - the research is now much easier what with the Internet); jams and fruits WITH the seeds, (ditto on the research - hint, add the word 'nitrilocides' to your GOOGLE search); take supplements like CoQ10 for my heart, and a myriad of other practices that seem to do me well, indeed. And, gasp, I get plenty of life/health giving sunshine.

I have a library that 's more complete on herbal & home remedies than the library.

"Etc. etc. etc."

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