generalspeaking

China's Contaminated Foods

"These harmful heavy metals have spread through the air and water, polluting a rather large area of China's land ... a complete chain of food contamination has existed for years." New Century magazine

As a result of China's massive and determined move over the past few decades to fast-paced industrialization on its way to becoming the world's largest exporter of goods, foods, manufactured products, it has succeeded in becoming the world's second-largest economy matching its dismal record in environmental degradation.

Growth in production capabilities took precedence over just about everything else.

All that manufacturing activity required a cheap and reliable energy source and coal-fired furnaces were everywhere to be seen, their chimneys blasting out black contamination, with particulate matter suffusing the atmosphere and deleteriously affecting peoples' health.

In the mining and manufacturing industries, effluent was routinely left untreated, to pollute lakes and rivers and surrounding soil.

Environmental protection was of no concern to the government in its inexorable drive to become the world's engine of inexpensive production. China now has another distinction besides that of trailing the United States as the world's second largest producer and exporter. It ranks now right up there as one of the world's worst water- and air-polluted countries.

It is now estimated that up to 10% of rice grown in China is contaminated with heavy metals. The risk to the consuming public has never been formally investigated; no research has been deemed required. This, in a country whose laxity in food production and safety techniques is legendary, where all manner of food has been found to be somehow contaminated.

Contaminated food that has impacted on the health and safety of Chinese consumers and consumers throughout the world as well, since China does such an immense amount of export business in basic foodstuffs, from honey to powdered milk. Powdered milk that was found to be laced with the industrial chemical melamine, added to give the impression of higher protein.

"In areas with acidic soil that are known to be badly polluted, we have found that up to 60% of the rice samples gathered there surpass cadmium standards", admitted a scientist with the Nanjing Agricultural University. He said that though cadmium levels were five times higher than government standards they represented a "potential health risk", not necessarily dangerous "acute toxicity".

Who really knows?

No major investigations into the possible public health impacts have been carried out. China produces about 200 million tonnes of rice, grown in south China, annually. Cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals have leached out of mine sites into surrounding soil and water to contaminate the rice so many are dependent upon.

That contaminated rice, re-cycled cooking oil, fake tofu and other unfortunate by-products of China's rush to dominate world markets is a dreadful price for its citizens to pay.

Labels: China, Economy, Environment, Human Fallibility

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, February 17, 2011