More China Safety Scares

China/st1 :country-region>'s golden Olympic media glow has definitely worn off, largely due to the melamine-laced baby formula.  Unfortunately, milk-based products aren't the only Chinese items to have soured.  Over the past few weeks, several others, ranging from baby cribs to beans to dog food, and even Chinese medicines.  Here are a few:/span>

Cribs: Once again babies are a target of poor quality items.  Delta Enterprises, a New York-based company recalled 1.6 million cribs that were produced in Indonesia Taiwan and mainland China/st1 :country-region>.  Two babies died as a result of poorly-crafted cribs, and the company says that the crib problem probably stems from safety pegs that were either missing or had worn out after multiple uses. /span>

Last Thursday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled 2,000 Chinese-made cribs, so it's possible that there are more to come.  Parents have been advised to check the safety of their cribs for loose parts or anything that seems dangerous in order to prevent more casualties. /span>

Medicine: An herbal drug used to treat jaundice and liver disease has been banned from Chinese hospitals, since it might be responsible for causing a newborn's death and causing "adverse effects" in three others.  Earlier this month, another contaminated drug was pulled off the market after it caused the deaths of three people in southwest China/st1 :country-region>.  Many hope these deaths will lead to increased regulations of China/st1 :country-region>'s pharmaceutical industry./span>

Beans: Beans might be considered a magical fruit, but Japanese consumers got an unpleasant surprise after their imported beans from China/st1 :country-region> contained 34,000 times the permitted level of a toxic insecticide.  The Chinese government ran sample tests, and didn't find any traces of it, so it's possible that the individual package was tainted, rather than all of the beans.  Considering the sometimes rocky relations between Chinese and Japanese, it wouldn't surprise me if someone tampered with the toxic beans.  /span>

Dog/Lion/Orangutan food: Not even man's best friend is safe from melamine.  About 1,500 raccoon dogs, whose thick fur is often used in coats, died after their feed contained too much melamine.  This chemical is often added to food to make it appear more nutritious, but the human body does not process melamine as a protein.  The veterinarian who examined the dogs post-mortem said that melamine comprised 25% of the dogs' kidney stones./span>

Dogs weren't the only animals with kidney stones.  A lion cub and two orangutans at a Shanghai/st1 :city> zoo also developed them.  Fortunately, the prized pandas have been spared, and are kidney-stone free./span>

Skin Cream: One Chinese skin cream was banned after officials found it contained a steroid hormone called clobetasol propionate.  While the hormone can be used to treat skin disorders, it can also cause changes in blood sugar, abnormal growth of body and facial hair, emotional disorders, and Cushing's syndrome. /span>

One eight-month old girl allegedly began to menstruate after using the cream for seven months, and her mother wouldn't have known that the cream contained the hormone, since the package did not even mention the hormone.  Instead, it said it was only composed of all-natural ingredients./span>

Water: While it's estimated that half of Chinese citizens have no access to clean drinking water, and 70% of China/st1 :country-region>'s waterways are severely polluted, Chinese water problems aren't really breaking news.  But in early October about 450 people became sick after drinking contaminated water in southern China/st1 :country-region>.  Four of victims have arsenic poisoning, which was probably dumped into the water by industrial waste from a metal company. /span>

It's unknown when these types of reports will become less frequent, but the fact that these incidents are being reported at all is a positive development.  Whether or not they're enough to inspire real reforms of certain industries, like cosmetics and pharmaceuticals remains unknown, but there's certainly significant consumer pressure to enact permanent changes.       /span>