Monday, August 20, 2007

Fanks for the Formaldehyde


Here we go again.
As expected.
The perfidy of Chinese manufacturers hits the headlines, again, and endangers consumers, again.
Formaldehyde in clothing. In children's clothing. Children of the west seem seriously targeted by the Chinese.
Chinese labels lie. "Low flame" labels on children's garments turn out to be sheer folly. The clothes catch fire. Two New Zealand children have been burned, so far.
Then there are the rashes being suffered by children wearing clothes which are drenched in formaldehyde - 900 times the maximum level deemed tolerable.
They are embalmed clothes, for heaven's sake - soaked in embalming fluid.
Embalmed pyjamas. Embalmed trousers. It's all a bit surreal.
Formaldehyde might be good at providing a permanent press in fabrics but it is permanent stress in the living human body. Carcinogenic, even.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has been discovering formaldehyde-tainted confectionery from China. Sweets! Candy!
This all comes on top of the lead paint on toys causing the greatest toy recall in history, the poisons in cough syrup, petfood...
It is hard to see this as error, as the blunders of an emerging capitalist society. Give us a break. The Chinese are not stupid people.
No, looking at the expanding scale of insidious forms of mass poisoning, it is all starting to look like terrorism.

4 comments:

the sobsister said...

And here I thought the Chinese saved all their formaldehyde for their beer. Silly me.

River said...

What about their own children? don't they wear the same clothing, take the same medicines, play with the same toys? That is so sad. I've been doing even more serious label reading when grocery shopping now. Anything labelled made in china or product of china is put back on the shelf.

ashleigh said...

You might call it terrorism, but Little John and his merry henchmen call it a free trading economy, and it's GOOD FOR US!

hkp900 said...

Eat a pear you get 40 mg/kg of formadehyde. Eat some dried mushrooms you get 400 mg/kg.
Formaldehyde is found in many foods, even Australian beer!