Importing illness

VOORHEESVILLE, N.Y. — Cole and Sydney Scheels represent the human face of growing U.S. concern over the safety of food imported from China.

The two young children, two of three triplets, recently became seriously ill with salmonella poisoning attributed to snack food containing tainted Chinese ingredients.

Their parents, Patrick and Elex Scheels, say they are still angry about their children's illness, which occurred despite their efforts to monitor the kinds of food they eat.

"It was terrifying and horrible," Mrs. Scheels said, recalling that her daughter lost 2½ pounds during her illness, a significant loss for a 24-pound child.

The illness was linked to Veggie Booty, a snack food manufactured and sold by Robert's American Gourmet Food of Sea Cliff, N.Y.

Mr. and Mrs. Scheels are suing the company, which recalled the product in June. The company declined to comment for this article.

The safety of Chinese food and other imports has come under heightened scrutiny in recent months because of problems traced to Chinese products, including pet deaths caused by tainted pet food, toothpaste that contained a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze, and mislabeled "monkfish" that might have been puffer fish containing the toxin tetrodotoxin.

President Bush last month set up a Cabinet-level working group to recommend ways to ensure the safety of imported food.

For the Scheels family, the crisis began in April when their daughter Sydney and her brother Cole, both of whom turned 2 last month, became seriously ill after eating the product, a puffed rice and corn snack food whose ingredients include spinach, kale, cabbage and broccoli, according to the company's Web site.

Sydney was sick for 14 days with symptoms including severe diarrhea and a fever that surpassed 105 degrees, Mrs. Scheels said.

I keep warning my friend who loves basa. It is kind of a catfish that is farmed raised in Vietnam and China with urine and human waste in the water to help the algae bloom.

And anyone who eats sushi these days is insane.

Chinese apple juice is added as a sweetener to all manner of childrens foods. And the Hollywood phonys were worried a few years ago about Alar added to apples? The Chinese use chemicals banned 50 years ago in the US.

Excerpts from http://www.pnv2.com/page14.html

“We at PNV2 have noticed a change in quality when it comes to our food, our pets food and the products we purchase in the store. We have found it hard to purchase anything that was NOT made in China and even harder to find ANY product that was made in the USA.”

Free trade is great for everyone, except us, the consumers. Our country has drastically lowered it’s standards in order to participate in free trade. Our pets have become ill and in some cases died. Our food has been tainted, our childrens toys are not safe and the products we purchase could pose a threat.

We urge you to purchase products that are 100% MADE IN THE USA!

Help us continue to take a stand and be a voice for our pets and our loved ones! Do everything you can to boycott goods made by China and this includes ingredients made in China, Chinese plant processing and Chinese exporting!

Our animals couldn’t speak for themselves.
Were they the canaries of the food chain?
We have to speak for them.
My baby is the first on this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrCvfj4g9MU

How did I know I was feeding him crap from China?

We have to protect our families now.
BOYCOTT CHINA!!!!!!

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