Poisoned syrup has caused at least eight mass poisonings in the world in the last twenty years. Thousands of people have died in these poisonings. It turns out that 3 out of the four most recent cases the syrup was made in China, a humongous source of counterfeit drugs (Hooker et al). Muckraking does still exist in 2016 in newspaper as demonstrated by Jake Hooker and Walt Bogdanich of the New York Times series.
Jake Hooker is an investigative journalist for the NY Times. Hooker went to China for 2 years from 200 to 2002 and taught English. He published a newspaper article about his life in China. Then Hooker went back in 2003 and worked for the Surmang Foundation, a private organization that runs a free health clinic in eastern Tibet for
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One simple thing. He read the label on a tube of toothpaste. Government inspectors and health authorities overlooked the words diethylene glycol. The deadly syrup. The same syrup that had killed and disabled 138 Panamanians. This raised the FDA’s awareness about the syrup diethylene glycol (Bogdanich et al).
Dozens of deaths of Haitian children from a drug ingredient from China caused an American Health official to send investigators to find out who made the lethal additive and why a company in China exported the drug as safe pharmaceutical-grade glycerin. The Chinese did not cooperate. Questions asked to find the maker were ignored and business records were hidden or destroyed. A decade later a 100 people died in Panama from a Chinese produced medicine that contained diethylene glycol (Hooker et al).
In Haiti and Panama, the FDA traced the ingredient back to Chinese chemical companies that were not certified to produce pharmaceutical additives. These state-owned exporters shipped the lethal syrup to European traders, who then sold it again while failing to identify the previous owner. This was an attempt to keep buyers from buying these ingredients from those owners on upcoming orders (Bogdanich et
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There are at least 700 companies in China that make drug products that will go to the U.S. The F.D.A. does not have enough manpower to conduct more than 20 inspections every year to see if they are certified to make the products or not. The director of a Pharmaceutical Company in China has guessed that half of the active medicinal ingredients sold in China are made by uncertified chemical companies. Many of these uncertified Chinese chemical manufacturers advertise ingredients in medicine. This is illegal as they are not certified to make medicine. They are qualified to make chemicals. One ingredient they advertise is diethylene glycol which is included in cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs, etc (Bogdanich et
The Prescription for Disaster is written, directed, produced, and hosted by Gary Null. Gary Null received an associate’s degree in business administration. His alma mater is a Mountain State, a 2-year college. He later goes to Union Institute and University for his Ph.D. in human nutrition , but he still does not have enough education or experience to speak on medical drugs compared to others in this field. He offers valid issues in the pharmaceutical industry, but most of his complaints are exaggerated and generalized to all in the medical field. The extreme bias of the Prescription for Disaster puts the validity of this documentary into
Remedies that were once used to treat diseases and utilities that could be used to build a house were starting to be turned into deadly, easily accessed, weapons. Prior to the 1920’s, murderers who killed using poison could get away with the death being ruled “by natural causes”, but after, skilled toxicologists re-innovated the procedures medical examiners perform when ruling a cause of death. After technology has advanced, killers who picked their poison (literally) were not able to get away with it as easily. An average person may think it’s more difficult to track down a lethal poisoner, let alone rule the cause of death a poisoning; however, it’s just like any other homicide.
Maple syrup is to people as honey is to bees. The production of syrup is as technical as almost any refined sugar, though like honey it is produced completely naturally, from the sap of maple trees. The process of creating maple syrup is as easy as extracting the sap from the tree and boiling off the excess water. After discussing the sap production, syrup production, and the process of creating maple sugar, we will all have a greater understanding of Maple syrup.
In the business of drug production over the years, there have been astronomical gains in the technology of pharmaceutical drugs. More and more drugs are being made for diseases and viruses each day, and there are many more drugs still undergoing research and testing. These "miracle" drugs are expensive, however, and many Americans cannot afford these prices.
The Holland Sweetener Company (HSC) is planning to enter the low-calorie, high-intensity sweetener market which is currently dominated by NutraSweet. Below we first analyze our target industry. Next we look at what kind of response should HSC expect from NutraSweet upon its entry into this market. We will also analyze few likely scenarios that could play out and we will try to estimate the likelihood of each scenario. Based on our analysis, we will give a recommendation for HSC to plan their entry into this market.
Illicit drug use and the debate surrounding the various legal options available to the government in an effort to curtail it is nothing new to America. Since the enactment of the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 (Erowid) the public has struggled with how to effectively deal with this phenomena, from catching individual users to deciding what to do with those who are convicted (DEA). Complicating the issue further is the ever-expanding list of substances available for abuse. Some are concocted in basements or bathtubs by drug addicts themselves, some in the labs of multinational pharmaceutical companies, and still others are just old compounds waiting for society to discover them.
An example is the Aspartame found in diet soda. Focusing on diet soda, it is shown that it is linked to even more diseases and causes more side effects than regular soda. Furthermore, “Numerous studies over the past several years have reported links between diet soda and weight gain, diabetes, heart problems, and other health issues. Most recently, headlines sounded alarms about a higher chance of dementia and stroke among diet soda drinkers” (Is Drinking…). The aspartame that is used in the diet soda is the main culprit for diet sodas effects. In fact, “Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious, including seizures and death” (Aspartame…). Aspartame is a man-made chemical that is made up of aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. With, aspartic acid making up 40%, phenylalanine making up 50%, and methanol making up 10%. Taking in consideration the phenylalanine in diet soda,” Excessive levels of phenylalanine in the brain can cause the levels of serotonin in the brain to decrease, leading to emotional disorders such as depression” (Aspartame…). With the methanol, that is found in aspartame, it “…breaks down into formaldehyde in the body. Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin… With a recommended limit of consumption of 7.8 mg/day. A one-liter (approx. 1 quart) aspartame-sweetened beverage contains about 56 mg of methanol. Heavy users of aspartame-containing products consume as much as 250 mg of methanol daily or 32 times the EPA limit” (Aspartame…). The effects of methanol are caused by the formaldehyde. “Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication and causes birth defects” (Aspartame…). Overall it is shown that the aspartame that is found in diet soda is linked to a number of diseases
World Drug Report, 2010, published by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, New York, 2010, p. 2.
The Pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma, is manufacturing and falsely marketing highly addictive prescription drug, OxyContin, in the United States. According to the CDC (Center for Disease control), opioid deaths have gone up 400% since 1999. Purdue Pharma, is deceiving the public about the safety of opioids. They are engaging in marketing campaigns and claiming that these harmful painkillers can be prescribed without a significant risk of addiction. When in fact, people do become addicted to painkillers, and nearly 90 of them lose their life each day due to opioid overdose. OxyContin was first introduced in 1995, and it was Purdue Pharma’s first major painkiller. According to FDA, OxyContin was supposed to be taken every 8 hours, but Purdue
Many people throughout the world visit the United States every year to receive medical treatment. This is due to our excellent pharmaceutical industry as it spends million of dollars and many hours of research to come up with what we can only describe as “miracle” drugs and treatments. Part of the success of many of these medications is because the pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated by policies that protect the public from accessing drugs that have not been fully tested and found to be “safe”. However, this was not the case until the late 1990s and early 2000s. One time in history that highly influenced the strict regulations we currently have was the nationwide contamination of patients through blood transfusion or by consuming medications
Bad drugs like Heroin was created in 1898 as a medicine to ease pain. It however was found to be so addictive that the public put a ban on it. Drugs like Aspirin however also popped out around this time and was used as an safe and effective way to easy headaches. Narcotics like opium, morphine, heroin and cocaine also became widespread as over the counter medicines that also like heroin also eventually became banned illegal drugs. These drugs became a final warning for our nation and they eventually created the Hague Opium Convention Treaty in China that banned the import and export of drugs like Opium in the countries. In the middle century (1950- 1970) development of new medicines skyrocketed with the end of World War 2. New drugs like weight loss supplements and sedative medication began to pop out of the pipeline and began being sold to the public. More useful drugs like Advil came out and helped millions of people with the flu and other pains. Even with these helpful drugs, shadier ones ran rampage in parts of the world. These drugs would sometimes lead to organ failures and even death. With the addition to the pipeline in medicine the chances of these deadly medicines became zero and only the most useful ones would be sent to the market. Now as more and more problems begin to take light in our community, problems like alzheimer's, autism and obesity run wild in our country. New drugs like Medisorb and Air Insulin can be used to fight Diabetes. ACP-103 by Acadia is a new drug that could be used to fight Parkinson’s disease and Schizophrenia by protecting the brain, and AEZS-108 which can be used to fight ovarian and endometrial cancer. By entering into the marketplace many new drugs begin to make
Tylenol's 1982 ordeal has become a classic example of a successful crisis management. Johnson & Johnson faced a major crisis when their leading pain-killer medicine, extra-strength Tylenol, was found to have caused the fatalities of seven people in Chicago, Illinois. It was reported that unknown suspect or suspects took the product off store shelves, tampered it with deadly cyanide and returned to the shelves. As a result, seven people died and consumers lost confidence and panicked over hearing the news of this incident. Tylenol received massive media coverage which led to an expeditious communication of event to the public. Johnson & Johnson (J & J) took a huge financial hit when it had to recall and destroy approximately $100 million dollars worth of inventory in addition to the loss incurred by the company when the public reacted to the incident (Campbell et. al., n.d.). Tylenol's approach was to pull off the products as quickly as possible, stopped production, cooperated with the investigation and the media and halted all forms of advertisement or marketing of the product. Furthermore, Johnson's & Johnson's took the initiative to protect and improve their product packaging which allowed them to regain the public's confidence and paved the way for improved tamper-resistant packaging now used by myriad of manufacturing companies. The fatalities occurred between September 29th to October 1st of the year 1982 and by November, Tylenol had already reintroduced the product with improved tamper-resistant packaging. To regain the public's attention and confidence, Johnson's & Johnson's launched a dynamic marketing campaign to put the product's name before the public.
8-31 Against the backdrop of Chinese consumers’ fear of buying contaminated food, a new industry has emerged in 2013.
Whereas, China’s annual herbal drug production is about US $48 billion with export of US $3.6 billion. Currently, United States has the largest share for Indian botanical products which accounts for about 50% of its total export. The major importers of herbal medicine from China are Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore which accounts for 66%. WHO includes phytotherapy in its health programmes and gives basic procedures for the validation of herbal drugs in developing countries. Eastern countries like India and China have well-established herbal industries and Latin American countries have been carrying out research programs in medicinal plants and their standardisation procedures. In Germany, 50% of phytomedicinal products are sold on medical prescription and the cost being refunded by health insurance companies. In North American countries, phytomedicinal products are sold as .health foods. Consumers and professionals have struggled to change this by gathering information about the efficacy and safety of these products and new guidelines for their registration are now part of FDA policy. In 1997, the North American market for products of plant origin reached US$ 2
Some European producers of herbal preparations invariably adhere to the requirements for the pharmaceutical quality of drugs. However, in certain countries herbal preparations are dispensed without a medical prescription and are sometimes supplied as “over the counter” preparations (11).