China: Forging new paths—as well as one that leads to a dead end
The head of the Food and Drug Administration was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to corruption. He’d accepted money to look the other way as substandard medicines went on the market, which resulted in some people’s deaths.
No, this isn’t our FDA—it’s China’s, but doesn’t it give you a moment of pause to consider what would happen if we lived in a regime like China’s?
Some countries don’t pull any punches—especially if their reputation can be affected by the release of tainted products onto the market. And the punishment is particularly grim—court-ordered execution.
By now, you’ve probably seen all of the news reports about a tainted ingredient—melamine—that was found in pet food and in feed for livestock and fish. That sparked the recall of pet food after multiple pet deaths were reported. More recently, Chinese-made toothpaste was found to have some sort of industrial solvent in it.
And that’s the international picture. The domestic picture is also one of fear and uncertainty about the safety of food and drugs in China. That’s also where a tainted antibiotic that the condemned chief food inspector approved—having taken a bribe—was linked to at least 10 deaths.
Up until now, China has not had a food-and-drug-recall system, but has announced plans to put one in place by the end of the year.
The Chinese government is now working to license food and drug producers and to create safety guidelines.
This won’t cure bribery, however. How easy is it to leave important information out of documents? Or leave out some damaging research findings?
Just look at our own system. We have guidelines, we have laws, and we have food-and-drug recalls. And still, we have illnesses and deaths despite these measures.
We’re not so very different from the Chinese in that our issues and their issues share one main theme in common: greed.
Speaking of China and exports….
We’re doing our own part in exporting “tainted goods” abroad—cancer! To be fair, it’s not exactly cancer we’re exporting, per se. It’s our own form of “tainted” goods that lead to cancer.
I’m talking, of course, about tobacco, alcohol, and nutritionally inferior foods, for starters. Picking up our bad habits, and adding more sedentary lifestyles due to the relocation from the countryside and into the cities that these Asian countries are experiencing, they’re now seeing rising rates of overweight and obesity.
Sound familiar?
And while all areas of Asia are experiencing this demographic and cultural shift, China is experiencing it even more than the others. These unhealthy habits—linked to a variety of cancers—are leading to an expected explosion of cancer rates in Asia, with China leading the deadly trend. China now accounts for one-fifth of the world’s new cases of cancer.
Let’s consider tobacco. Here in the U.S., we’re methodically enacting smoking bans in public places all across the country, whereas in Asia, on the other hand, people are seen smoking everywhere. And with the prevalence of smoking comes a surge in new cases of lung cancer. What’s especially alarming is the fact that our government is supporting the cigarette industry’s marketing efforts in countries like China—helping us to export death, as it were. That means your and my tax dollars are being spent on this immoral, unhealthy pursuit that is resulting in unnecessary illness and death. Sickening, isn’t it?
As for food, trading fruits and vegetables for fat- and sodium-laden meals has brought an increase in the stomach and colon cancers being diagnosed.
Poor countries with burgeoning populations aren’t equipped with the resources to contend with an epidemic of cancer. Here, we’ve at least been exposed to awareness campaigns on the dangers of smoking and excess alcohol, and the push to eat more healthily, and we’ve been given all of the reasons and statistics as to why. And when we ignore all of that advice and continue to smoke, drink, and eat shoddy foods, we can fall back on a medical system that will work to treat us. (How the system goes about that is an entirely different discussion for another day!)
That’s not the case in Asia. They just don’t have the resources to treat all of those people, and, with an epidemic of cancer cases projected to come, the toll will be felt heavily in all those countries.
It’s sometimes said that those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. I’d recommend to China and all of the other Asian countries—take a lesson from what we’ve done wrong and unhealthily here in our country.
