June 28th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Uncategorized
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I’ve been expressing my concerns over the recent quality control issues in China – first the melamine in pet food, then the contaminated medicines, next the anti-freeze in toothpaste. The New York Times has an interesting piece on the toothpaste scandal. But they miss an interesting issue at play: cost cutting is the underlying cause of all this.
Antifreeze (diethylene glycol) is less expensive and mimicks the flavor of mouthwash. Melamine (the poison recently found in pet food ingredients) is a cheap filler product that increases the apparent protein content of pet food.
So China was putting these cheaper imitation ingredients into their products to improve their bottom line, not because they were particularly interested in causing the death of people and pets.
And before we point a finger at them… let’s think about why the toxic toothpaste got into our hospital and prison systems: because the administrators were trying to buy the cheapest possible products to save on costs. And the least expensive items are often from China. This is a good example of how cost cutting can endanger lives – with both the US and ChinaThis post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 19th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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This was one of the strangest news items in my inbox this week. Apparently, British cattle are catching tuberculosis from the local badger population. Now, the only thing that I thought the two animals had in common was their coloring… but I guess they must hang out together with sufficient frequency to pass on TB infections.
In fact, one BBC News report suggests that farms with larger hedges had lower rates of cattle TB infections… presumably because the hedges kept the badgers from fraternizing as much with the cows. This finding provides a nice alternative to badger culling, a practice that the animal rights folks do not endorse.
But what does this mean for humans? Well, according to the CDC, cattle TB (caused by a special strain of mycobacterium – M. bovis) has been virtually eradicated in the US due to herd culling and milk pasteurization methods. Cattle TB doesn’t tend to infect the lungs, so it’s less transmissible via droplets and such. So even if you’re in England and Bessy the cow sneezes on you, you probably won’t catch TB. But if you drink Bessy’s unpasteurized milk or cheese products, you’ve got yourself a risky situation. As for badgers – they’re not very affectionate anyway, so I wouldn’t try to befriend them.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
May 7th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Quackery Exposed
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The global economy is a mixed blessing – while we may
benefit from access to less expensive goods and services, by using them we rely
on the quality standards of their country of origin. In an alarming expose, the New York Times
reveals how far behind China
is in the application of quality and safety standards to their food and
pharmaceutical products.
I have voiced concerns in this blog before about the
melamine/pet food scandal and the implications it may have for humans, as well
as the fact that many Chinese citizens trust western medicine over their own
traditional practices for matters of serious illness. But this latest Times article has further
described the risk that counterfeit Chinese products can pose to the global community:
Toxic syrup has
figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two
decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the
precise origin of the poison has never been determined. But records and
interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China, a major
source of counterfeit drugs.
“Everybody wants to
invest in the pharmaceutical industry and it is growing, but the regulators
can’t keep up,” Mr. Zhou said. “We need a system to assure our safety.”
… Families [in Panama] have
reported 365 deaths from the poison, 100 of which have been confirmed so far.
When it comes to your health and the safety of the medicines
you use, you’re only as safe as the weakest link in the manufacturing or regulatory
process. Prescription medications are
carefully regulated in the US,
but there is no such oversight in the herb and supplements market. So buyer beware… Check out places like consumerlab.com to get
some objective information about safety before you pop those “health pills.”
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
April 13th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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The recent death of hundreds of beloved pets was traced back to a wheat gluten factory near Shanghai, China. The wheat gluten, a thickener used in pet food, was contaminated with melamine (a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers, and flame retardants). It is believed that the melamine may have been processed or stored in the same containers used for the gluten.
How did the contaminated gluten make it into over 100 brands of US pet food? Chinese ingredients are less expensive than American ones, and so large companies purchase many plant and animal products from China to save on costs. The fact that over 100 brands were recalled speaks to the pervasiveness of Chinese agricultural products contained within American food products.
A very alarming article was published by Forbes Magazine, describing the serious quality control problems that China has been having, and America’s limited ability to screen incoming goods:
Over the past 25 years, Chinese agricultural exports to the U.S. surged nearly 20-fold to $2.26 billion last year, led by poultry products, sausage casings, shellfish, spices and apple juice.
Inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are able to inspect only a tiny percentage of the millions of shipments that enter the U.S. each year.
Even so, shipments from China were rejected at the rate of about 200 per month this year, the largest from any country, compared to about 18 for Thailand, and 35 for Italy, also big exporters to the U.S., according to data posted on the FDA’s Web site.
Chinese products are bounced for containing pesticides, antibiotics and other potentially harmful chemicals, and false or incomplete labeling that sometimes omits the producer’s name.
The problems the [Chinese] government faces are legion. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in excess to boost yields while harmful antibiotics are widely administered to control disease in seafood and livestock. Rampant industrial pollution risks introducing heavy metals into the food chain.
Farmers have used cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to boost the value of their eggs and fed an asthma medication to pigs to produce leaner meat. In a case that galvanized the public’s and government’s attention, shoddy infant formula with little or no nutritional value has been blamed for causing severe malnutrition in hundreds of babies and killing at least 12.
Assuming that Forbes has not overstated the case, Americans have good cause for concern about the safety of food that includes ingredients from China – is it only a matter of time before the pet food debacle is played out in humans? I don’t know, but I’m worried. Do you know of any other credible reports about this problem? Please share!
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
April 12th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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I was reading a news story about how medical fraud is becoming more frequent in Australia. They attribute this to the recent transition to electronic record keeping, which makes it easier to file fraudulent claims. Although these tactics are old news in the US, I think it’s worth a little summary (from the article) here – stay on the lookout for overcharges and fraud! The best way to protect yourself is to review your bills with vigilance. It’s sad that it has come to this…
Fraudulent tactics
Supply companies:
* Upcoding of items and services where, for example, a medical supplier may deliver to the patient a manually propelled wheelchair but bill the patient’s health fund for a more expensive, motorized wheelchair, or where a routine follow-up doctor’s office visit might be billed as an initial or comprehensive visit.
* Billing for medical services or items that are in excess of the patient’s actual needs. These might include a medical supply company delivering and billing for 30 wound care kits per week for a nursing home patient who only requires one change of dressings per day, or conducting daily medical office visits when monthly office visits are adequate.
Providers:
* Duplicate claims, where a certain item or service is claimed twice. In this scheme, an exact copy of the claim need not be filed a second time. Rather, the provider usually changes part of the claim so the health insurer does not realize it is a duplicate.
* Unbundling, where bills are submitted in a fragmented fashion so as to maximize reimbursement for tests or procedures that are required to be billed together at a reduced cost.
* Kickbacks, when a healthcare provider or other person engages in an illegal kickback for the referral of a patient for healthcare services that may be paid for by Medicare.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
