More China sh*t.....

[Dr Mordrid]

Got this ProMED bulletin;

FORMALDEHYDE CONTAMINATION, CANDY - PHILIPPINES ex CHINA
************************************************** ******
A ProMED-mail post

Date: Mon 8 Oct 2007
Source: The China Daily [edited]

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/08/content_6155826.htm

The [Chinese] government is deeply concerned by reports that some
Filipino students have fallen ill after eating Chinese-made milk
candies, the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce said. A special
team of food safety experts will be sent to the Philippines if
necessary to assist in the investigation, the spokesman said. He
declined to reveal the name of the candies.

Some 23 schoolchildren fell ill on Thursday [4 Oct 2007] after eating
milk candies imported from China and were sent to hospital in Cebu,
the Philippines, according to local reports. They were all discharged
a day later [5 Oct 2007], reports said.

Pending the results of the investigation into the incident, local
stores have been asked to temporarily stop selling the candies.

In response, the Chinese government directed its Cebu consulate to
immediately look into the matter and submit a report.

Late last month [September 2007], the Philippines banned the sale of
imported Chinese food products at school canteens in response to
reports that the goods contained cancer-causing formaldehyde.

Among the products tested by the top food watchdog in the Philippines
and found to contain formaldehyde were White Rabbit milk candies and
Yong Kang Foods grape biscuits.

Formaldehyde, a colorless, flammable gas, has been classified as a
human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research and as a
probable human carcinogen by the US Environmental Protection [Agency].

[Elie]

OY!

I think China has alot of work to do if they want to restore it's already poor reputation when it comes to it's products.

People should stop buying made in China products, end of story!

[Dr Mordrid]

Got some back story; apparently some Chinese food and beverage companies (including breweries) clean their equipment using formaldehyde instead of the solutions modern companies use.

[Brian Ellis]

Presumably you mean formalin, which is an aqueous solution of formaldehyde, more correctly known as methanal, containing ~37% of the gas. However, it reacts reversibly with the water, forming methylene glycols (mono- and tri-) and insoluble paraformaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a gas with a BP of -21°C.

I mention all this because formalin is used a lot as a germicide, especially for surgical instruments, largely replaced now by ethylene oxide, for treating a few skin diseases and for storing histological specimens, usually diluted to a stable 2-5% plus as feedstock for a host of other chemicals. TTBOMK, it is not commonly used as a component for cleaning products and, if it were, exposed to air, the formaldehyde would quickly evaporate, as it does not form any azeotrope with water.

We are all exposed to potentially dangerous quantities of formaldehyde in everyday life, mainly from furniture (chipboard, hardboard, melamine surfaces, adhesives etc.,), low-cost electronics on paper-reinforced PF circuit boards, vehicle exhausts, burning wood, passive tobacco smoke, embalming fluid (banned in the EU) etc. As this leads to chronic exposure, this is much more dangerous than its acute effects from ingesting contaminated candy, which will lead to a temporary lowering of blood pH through the metabolic conversion to formic or methanoic acid. There is no question of acute exposure being carcinogenic, so the mention "cancer-causing" etc. in the article is unnecessarily alarmist, unless the kids eat the the candy regularly for umpteen years on the trot. Their school desks and traffic fumes are probably much more dangerous in this regard.

Incidentally, increasing quantities of allergenic formaldehyde in the air are hypothesised to be causal for some of the increase in asthma, especially juvenile asthma.