Sham: Chinese Supplements: The Story Continues

It appears that, once again, China is sending contaminated and dangerous products out into the world through practices that are often deceptive, and always indicative of poor quality and Government regulatory control. I wrote about this in an earlier "Sham vs. Wham."

An article appearing in today's New York Times (linked to the headline of this post) speaks of thousands of tubes of poisoned toothpaste which appear to have been produced in China, under brand names like "Mr. Cool." How would you like to brush your teeth with a product that contains industrial anti-freeze? Counterfeiters in China have found that it is more profitable to substitute Diethylene Glycol in products such as this one, which is supposed to have another sweet-tasting syrup as a part of its ingredient list (Glycerine).

This story is important to anyone who follows the dietary supplement business, because an ever-increasing number of US dietary supplement companies import their formulas directly from China, where industrial pollutants have worked their way into plant life and where little or no government regulatory control exists over suppliers of exported herbal and medicinal ingredients. These Chinese counterfeiters and the American businessmen who do business with them do not deserve your money . . . Even the Swedish company that produces an excellent herbal product for the USA market has been hit by these fakes. Copycat products appearing to be the same tablets appear under similar brand names in boxes with the same foil sealed packages made famous by the Swedes. Stick with quality products from US or European suppliers (or Brazilian in the case of medicinal mushrooms) for your health care. Copycats, cheats and contaminators do not deserve to make a living on your health investment.

Dave

PS - How do we allow this? We buy a $6.99 supplement instead of one that costs $12.00, and what do we get? Chinese contaminated garbage. Read this article at the Washington Post -- it's just plain frightening.