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China Again Connected To US Deaths

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Anonymous

Guest
Why are we doing business with companies/countries that we have to get formal permission for to do an "inspection" of...I'm sure the conditions on the day of the inspection are the same as they were months earlier when we requested permission :roll: :???:
How many folks is GW going to kill or maim in the name of Freetrade?
:???:


February 14, 2008, 8:11 am
China Plant Produced Key Ingredient for Baxter’s Heparin
Posted by Joe Mantone
A new twist was added to an investigation into deadly allergic reactions to a generic blood thinner from Baxter International.

The FDA hadn’t inspected a Chinese facility responsible for the active ingredient in the drug, heparin, that is derived from pig intestines, the WSJ reports on page one.

It’s not known whether the facility played a role in the drug’s problems; Baxter had previously announced it was halting production of the drug, given to patient undergoing dialysis and some surgeries, because of bad reactions and fatalities.

“While no FDA inspection of the facility has been conducted to date, preparations are being made to perform an inspection as soon as possible,” an FDA spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “We have already requested expedited access to the facility, facilitated through a recently signed agreement with the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration.”
Whether the facility played a role in the problems of heparin or not, the revelation is likely to bring fresh criticism to the FDA’s policy of inspecting foreign plants.

The GAO has said that the FDA may only inspect around 7% of foreign drug-making facilities in a year and some see it as a warning sign to increase funding for the taxed agency. China’s State Food and Drug Administration has also been trying to crack down on unregulated chemicals getting into drugs.

And this is what occurs when we ship all our production overseas and allow our needs to be filled by one company/country....

The company provides roughly 50 per cent of all the heparin administered in the US, and it is thought that further recalls could create a shortage in the drug that could be more dangerous to patients that the increased risk of adverse reactions.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Give credit where credit is due...........

Clinton led the charge that renewed China's "Most Favored Nation" status which changed the tariff situation with them. Just after the revelation that Clinton allowed missile secrets to China. :lol:

It passed overwhelmingly in a bi-partisan measure and cannot be revoked for a few years.

So your saying Bush is killing people?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Mike said:
Give credit where credit is due...........

Clinton led the charge that renewed China's "Most Favored Nation" status which changed the tariff situation with them. Just after the revelation that Clinton allowed missile secrets to China. :lol:

It passed overwhelmingly in a bi-partisan measure and cannot be revoked for a few years.

So your saying Bush is killing people?

Clinton started it-- GW fasttracked it......And GW's the one there right now (and for the past 7 years) that could do something about all this untested product coming into the country...
The inspection and regulation by FDA/USDA/FTC should be the same in these foreign companies/plants producing our drugs/food/toys- as they are in our domestic companies...If we don't have that- they shouldn't import it....
But we can't have that- as that would cut into some of these politicians elitist buddies and lobbiests profiteering..... :(
 

Mike

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Mike said:
Give credit where credit is due...........

Clinton led the charge that renewed China's "Most Favored Nation" status which changed the tariff situation with them. Just after the revelation that Clinton allowed missile secrets to China. :lol:

It passed overwhelmingly in a bi-partisan measure and cannot be revoked for a few years.

So your saying Bush is killing people?

Clinton started it-- GW fasttracked it.....

BUSH DIDN'T GET "FAST TRACK AUTHORITY" UNTIL JULY 2002!

Friday, May 27, 1994
Clinton Grants China MFN, Reversing Campaign Pledge
By Ann Devroy
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON

President Clinton Thursday reversed course on China and renewed its trade privileges despite what he said was Beijing's lack of significant progress on human rights.

Echoing the case made by George Bush when he was president, Clinton said he was convinced the Chinese would take more steps to improve human rights if the issue were separated from the threat of trade sanctions.

"This decision offers us the best opportunity to lay the basis for long-term sustainable progress on human rights and for the advancement of our other interests with China," he said at a news conference announcing his decision to extend China's most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status.

To demonstrate what he stressed was his administration's continuing concern about human rights in China, Clinton said he was banning the import of Chinese munitions and taking several other small steps to support the pro-democracy cause in China.

But his action stopped well short of appeals by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for selected sanctions on some Chinese products as a way to penalize China for failing to improve human rights. Both said they would introduce legislation that continues a link between trade privileges and human rights improvements.

"I disagree with the decision," Mitchell said of Clinton's move. "This decision will confirm for the regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade." Several other Democratic senators, however, issued statements of support and said they would join Clinton in Congress in resisting legislation to alter the trade status.

Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said that the decision reflected a key role China can play in geopolitics, specifically "maintaining stability on the Korean peninsula and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons."

Clinton had been the subject of heavy lobbying by American business interests and his economic advisers to continue China's trade privileges. With China now the world's fastest growing economy, the United States exports $8 billion a year there, which sustains up to 150,000 American jobs. Many major American businesses see even greater potential in Chinese markets, expecting China to become a massive purchaser over the next decade of the phones, electronic gadgets and thousands of other products made in America.

"I think we have to see our relations with China within a broader context" than simply human rights, Clinton said, adding that the link between rights and trade was no longer tenable. "We have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy," he said.

Human rights groups and a strong lobby in Congress had pressed Clinton to adhere to the goal he set last year in an executive order that made renewal of China's MFN status dependent on "overall significant progress" in human rights. Clinton in his presidential campaign had sharply attacked Bush for extending trade privileges to China in the years following the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, accusing him of "coddling criminals."

But Clinton said Thursday he has had a change of heart. "Let me ask you the same question I have asked myself," he said. "Will we do more to advance the cause of human rights if China is isolated."

What the United States policy should be, he added, is "to intensify and broaden its relations" with Beijing, not isolate it. He acknowledged that the one sanction he was imposing - the ban on imports of guns and ammunition from China involving about $200 million in sales - constituted little more than a "discrete" symbol of U.S. displeasure. Most weapons are made by the Peoples Liberation Army, agent of the 1989 crackdown that set off congressional calls for revoking China's trade status.

The other measures he announced include increased broadcasts for Radio-Free Asia and the Voice of America, increased support for non-governmental organizations working on human rights in China and the development with U.S. business leaders of a voluntary set of principles for business activity in China.

Clinton's decision came after an intensive, sometimes fractious, debate within the administration over what steps to take and how. At one point, the president was leaning toward extending the trade privileges, but putting sanctions on a range of military-made products. The Treasury and Defense departments vehemently objected, and from the outset the president's economic advisers argued that trade and human rights should not be linked.

In assessing China's human rights record over the past year, Secretary of State Warren Christopher reported to Clinton earlier this week that China had made progress in allowing emigration and had begun complying with an agreement that produces investigations of the use of prison labor in making Chinese goods.

But Christopher also concluded that the Chinese had not made progress in complying with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in providing an acceptable accounting for political and religious prisoners and in treating them humanely. He also found no change in China's repression of Tibet and no end to China's jamming broadcasts by the Voice of America.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Mike- I didn't mean "Fast track authority"-- SHHEESHHH
I mean he put trade with China on an unlimited fast pace- allowing anything and everything-much of which does not meet our codes or specs.....
So does that mean because some idiot President (Clinton) signed a piece of paper- we have no sovereign right or responsibility left to make sure the products they send us aren't killing our citizens :???: Come on Mike...

13-Feb-2008 - Baxter International has suspended the production of its blood-thinning drug heparin in multi-dose vials, following the deaths of four patients in the USA who were given the drug in high doses.

In addition to the four deaths, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly received reports of 350 severe allergic reactions to the drug, with symptoms including a rapid drop in blood pressure, burning sensations, headaches, throat swelling and a shortness of breath.
 

Mike

Well-known member
I mean he put trade with China on an unlimited fast pace-

How so? He was letting trade resume by the rules set forth in the MFN status. He can't change it. The status is not reviewed each year as they were before the Clinton agreement.

Just how did he escalate trade?

Just how many life threatening problems did we have with China goods before 2007?

Have these problems been happening during the entire Bush command?

Personally, I say cut off all commerce with China, but since Clinton signed on to the agreement and China is a WTO country that can't happen.

By the way, our trade deficit FELL last year. :roll:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Mike said:
I mean he put trade with China on an unlimited fast pace-

How so? He was letting trade resume by the rules set forth in the MFN status. He can't change it. The status is not reviewed each year as they were before the Clinton agreement.

Just how did he escalate trade?
Absolutely no regulation or oversight on these foreign plants, giving them a competition edge to use any method they wanted- many of which are illegal in the US-- cutting inspectors and inspections on imports- taking inspectors off the street and putting them into management positions- USDA management informing inspectors to do nothing- just shuffle paper to make it look good...Lou Dobbs also claims that GW has allowed US owned companies to use tax loopholes to operate offshore without paying any US taxes (I'm not a tax expert so can't confirm this)..

Just how many life threatening problems did we have with China goods before 2007?


Have these problems been happening during the entire Bush command?
Who knows- it took 1,000s of dogs dying to get people looking..

Personally, I say cut off all commerce with China, but since Clinton signed on to the agreement and China is a WTO country that can't happen.

Following the law hasn't seemed to be GW's strongpoint before- like when he wants to keep ingnoring and openly violating the law by allowing semislave labor in for his elitist buddies profiteering- which is opposed by 80% of the US populace- so now your saying he's allowing all these tainted and substandard products in-that are killing and sickening people- because he's following a law... :???:
Even WTO law allows inspections and closures to countries that have a continued history of violations.....
He's showed where his loyalties lie....Allowing USDA to stall/stop the M-COOL law- which would give US producers a fair playing field- and be able to compete with countries that have substandard regulations and oversight...He allowed USDA to change rules to let in higher risk product from Canada-is allowing them to change rules to let in high risk product from Argentina...
Bullpuckey...He's bought out like most of D.C. is ...


By the way, our trade deficit FELL last year. :roll:

And our national debt increased to near $9Trillion :roll:
 

Mike

Well-known member
Bush actually RAISED the FDA budget to ADD inspectors. :lol:

Bush seeks 10 percent FDA budget boost.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Medical Marketing & Media, June, 2001 by Dickinson, James G.


* President George W. Bush's first budget request to Congress in April sought a 10 percent ($123 million) overall funding increase for the agency, including for the first time an earmarked allocation for mandated cost-of-living pay raises for FDA employees. Previously, the FDA'S program Centers have had to take unfunded payroll increases out of resources allocated to their overall operations.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Mike said:
Bush actually RAISED the FDA budget to ADD inspectors. :lol:

Bush seeks 10 percent FDA budget boost.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Medical Marketing & Media, June, 2001 by Dickinson, James G.


* President George W. Bush's first budget request to Congress in April sought a 10 percent ($123 million) overall funding increase for the agency, including for the first time an earmarked allocation for mandated cost-of-living pay raises for FDA employees. Previously, the FDA'S program Centers have had to take unfunded payroll increases out of resources allocated to their overall operations.

Most of the money went to "bonus's" for management :roll:- another snidely way around reporting what a bureaucrat actually gets :( :mad: ....FDA testified to Congress that they are actually losing field inspectors and they only have enough inspectors to examine less than 1 out of 100 foreign products...The retiring former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson made heavy emphasis on this during his "retirement" speech......
Since we don't have access to or can't/don't have oversight/inspections of the production facilities--If they don't have enough to test them all- they shouldn't let them in....If it hasn't been inspected it should set on the ship/dock until it can be...

FDA's Retention Bonuses Rise to the Top
Critics Say Money Goes to Managers, Not Scientists Coveted by Drug Firms


By John Solomon and Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 2, 2007; A01



Before paying $48,823 in cash bonuses to its chief of regulatory affairs in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration asked her to sign a simple declaration: "If I am unable to receive a retention allowance, I am likely to leave the federal government for a higher paying position in the private sector," wrote Margaret O'K. Glavin.

Glavin's statement did not detail a specific job offer, but that did not impede the payment. Over the past 4 1/2 years, she has collected more than $178,000 in cash bonuses -- on top of her $159,840 annual salary.

FDA officials justified Glavin's bonuses by saying her pay should be close to the salaries of those employed by companies she regulates, namely Washington lobbyists. The private-sector comparison has prompted large cash bonuses for top agency officials to quadruple since 2002, to $13.6 million in 2005, according to FDA officials and salary information provided to Congress.
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One of the biggest winners has been Terrell L. Vermillion, a retired Secret Service agent who now heads the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations. He has received nearly $129,000 in retention bonuses and cash merit awards in the past four years on top of his base salary of about $160,000. Last year, the bonuses pushed Vermillion's total FDA compensation to $198,389, putting him above the $194,200 salary of an associate Supreme Court justice or the $165,200 salary of a member of Congress.

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Some Republicans also expressed concern. "Somehow the FDA has institutionalized the open till, and some of their least distinguished bureaucrats seem to be grabbing as much as they can. When all you have to do for $30,000 or $40,000 is send in a note saying 'Pay up,' something's rotten," said Rep. Joe L. Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on Dingell's committee.

--------------------------

Glavin's tenure at the FDA has been marked by controversy. Her office angered lawmakers by proposing to close seven of the agency's 13 food-safety labs -- although the FDA suspended the plan yesterday -- and she personally wrote an internal memo critical of FDA employees who told a congressional hearing last month that the FDA had performed poorly in protecting the safety of the food supply. Dingell and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) accused Glavin of sending the memo as part of a "campaign of intimidation and retaliation."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080102600_pf.html
 

Mike

Well-known member
FDA to increase inspectors following bill funding
By George Reynolds


02-Aug-2007 - More food safety inspectors are to be recruited by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after a $90.7m funding bill was passed by Congress today.

Extra funding reverses the trend of cost cutting and dwindling numbers of inspectors, which many believe have contributed to the decay of the food safety network in the US.

The bill that has passed to the Senate will require the FDA to submit a plan for improving the food safety network, which is under fire following a series of health scares related to tainted imports.

Plans will need to be submitted early next year, with implementation of proposed measures to commence by July 2009.

To hire inspectors and other safety work, the FDA is to be given $48m, while $7m is dedicated to ensuring imports meet US standards. Further food safety standards, hazard and critical control point (HACCP) planning, and reviewing the safegaurds in place for countries exporting to the US will be allocated $28m.

Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA commissioner, said that the agency was working on a memorandum that he will "assure the quality of the products imported to the United States" from China.

"We have to increase the inspector field force, but I'd like to do that by not simply saying we have to have more inspectors," he said. "I'd like to do it from the point of view that we are doing so strategically. What kind of inspectors, where do we need them, what kinds of tools do we need to provide for them."

FDA regulates about 80 percent of the food supply of food for human and animals, while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees the remainder. However, according to the Senate version of the bill, which is now ready for debate, inspector numbers have halved in the last four years.

The FDA has 1,317 field investigators, 625 of whom conduct food inspections, according to the agency.

However, the USDA, which regulates the meat, poultry and egg industries, has about 7,600 inspectors in meatpacking plants.

Plans to relocate 250 inspectors and close seven food safety testing laboratories have been put on hold by Von Eschenbach, while the FDA awaits the findings of a recently formed presidential commission on the safety of imports, which is due report in about two months.

On Wednesday, the FDA announced it was launching a national program to bring about more uniformity in how state agencies regulate manufacturing, processing, packing, or food storage facilities under agency's jurisdiction.

Margaret Glavin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs for the FDA, said a risk-based program represents a significant step in further integrating our food safety system.

"We realize it will be several years before it's fully implemented, but we're confident this program will bring great benefits to the public health," she said.

At present, between states programs, which can lead to inconsistencies in the oversight of food safety, according to the FDA.

"Adoption of voluntary standards for state regulatory programs will establish a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of state programs for regulating manufactured food and help the state and federal authorities reduce foodborne illness hazards in food facilities," the FDA said.

Standards to define best
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
About Time- It took Congressional hearings and a near consumers uprising to get it.....But more inspectors in 2009 doesn't help us now in 2008......
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Lou Dobbs Show is really tearing into the FDA/Administration on this Heparin issue tonight...Senator Grassley is up in arms at them again- and is tearing into the fact that this Chinese plant has NEVER been inspected by the FDA- but is also reporting that last year only 11 out of the 100,000's of foreign plants that make drug products for shipment to the US were even looked at..... :roll: :( :mad:

Poll results of the poll during the show:
Do you believe the FDA failed to provide even the most basic level of protection for the American people by allowing untested facilities in Communist China to produce ingredients for prescription drugs in this country?
Yes 98% 4884
No 2% 108
Total Votes: 4992
 
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