In reading the New York Times online, I came across an editorial called: China’s Baby Formula Scandal. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/opinion/20sat2.html) This article explains that we have not only had problems in the past with China having lead in products such as baby toys and dog food. It also emphasizes the newly discovered sin of the Chinese manufacturing companies: contaminated baby milk powder.
It is honestly outrageous, the irresponsibility of Chinese companies to not fully check a product, especially one that is fed to infants. Luckily this product never made its way to the United States, however, it devastatingly killed many babies is China and injured many more. It amazes me the amount of times we hear about lead-ridden products on the markets, making people ill or even killing them, and China still can’t guarantee safe products. It should be the duty of China’s government to ensure that the merchandise these companies are producing are harmless, however, they have yet to show their capability to do so.
Yet, maybe this is not all China’s fault. Maybe we, as consumers, are a part of the problem. We continuously demand more, cheap goods. And the best way to do that is by importing from China. The only real way to fix this issue is to boycott China’s products. Can we even trust them anyways? They have contaminated our children’s toys and poisoned our pets, what is next? Poison our infants? No. Americans need to stop buying the cheap toys that have ‘made in China,’ inscribed in them, which all have the potential of causing damage. That’s the whole point; we never know what where or when could be harmful. But we do know that China is not a reliable source for safe goods for America.
Enlightened by the discovery of a new lead contaminated product, I realize now that the chance is not worth it and the likelihood of China changing soon is low. Americans must check the ‘made in’ label to ensure their own and their family’s safety. Although China is growing quite rapidly, it is still not safe to trust China.
5 comments:
News update: 13,000 babies have been hospitalized in China due to the formula scandal.
And I agree: China needs to take far more responsibility for its products, not only for the ones they sell her, but for the things they give to their own people. Maybe this will finally make them see that economic efficiency is not worth the destruction of life, human or not.
I was checking my email and I am a member of the NY Times as well. I clicked on the link and sure enough an article on this lead scandal was right at the top. The first line of the article reads, "They found the body hanging on the third floor of the Lee Der toy factory." This was so disturbing, this man hung himself because he was blamed by Mattel for "the recall of one million toys coated in toxic lead paint" As I read the article i thought oh maybe this is the same article being written about, but it definitely wasn't! This just showed me how big of a deal this lead scandal really is. I have never really known anything this serious was going on but it is very scary to think about. We are so lucky that the contaminated baby milk powder didn't get to the states!
After hearing and reading about the China formula scandal, I was disgusted by their government, but didn't think about what I could do as a result of my disgust. After reading your post, I'm going to look for the "made in" notation and avoid buying toys from China. It may be more expensive to buy toys from the United States, but it's worth the investment in my son's health and in the economy!
I completely agree with your thoughts. China should be more responsible for the safety of others but more importantly the safety of their own people. The people their killing due to this irresponsibility is their future. And we as Americans should be more responsible too. We should understand where the product is coming from and whether its safe to be used. Great post.
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