Memo of health incidents in 2010

From Southern Metropolis Weekly:

The cruel reality reminds us that we are in the environment of “man-made illnesses”. What can we do? How do we break out?

January

January 7, over 30 dialysis patients were infected with hepatitis C virus in Anqing City, Anhui Province. January 11, 16 people were infected in Shou County.

January 22, in Guangzhou, a junior high school boy got meningitis after injection of flu vaccine.

January 25, 18 pregnant women in Shantou city were infected with disease-causing bacteria, led to chronic illnesses, 7 cases were concealed.

February

February 4, a bread factory in Conghua, Guangzhou was forced to shut down for using milk powder containing melamine.

February 9, “melamine ice cream” appeared in Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province.

February 10, Guangdong Chao Candy contained melamine way exceeding limits.

February 23, Wuhan Bureau of Agriculture announced, cowpea of Hainan were detected to contain Isocarbophos.

February 24, due to industrial pollution, 250 children in Jiahe County, Hunan province had mass amount of lead in their blood. Some parents were arrested by the County Public Security Bureau for trying to go of town for physical examination. The company Tengda caused the lead poisoning incident was ordered to stop several times by the EPA but continued to operate. It has now been shut down.

February 26, According to Agricultural Quality Supervision and Testing Center in Jiangmen City, one of the Cucumber samples and one of the cowpea samples from Hainan contained banned pesticide – Isocarbophos.

March

March 2, 26 workers at Dongguan Ding Xin Metal & Plastic Products Co. Ltd. were diagnosed with diseases that are caused by the harmful aspects of their profession.

March 14, the news of certain cabbage contained pesticide residues exceeding 20 times of the national standard broke out in Haikou City.

CCTV reported on March 15, “Yong Heng calcium alkaline ionized water” and other alkaline water are harmful to human body.

March 17, over hundreds of children in Shanxi died or became disabled of unknown causes, but all were vaccinated before their illness. This was so called the “Shanxi Vaccine incident”.

March 18, media reported that in China, the “sewage oil” that goes back onto the dinner table is about 2-3 million tons each year, and the total oil consumption is about 22.5 million tons a year. Sewage oil is 100 times more poisonous than arsenic, since then, sewage oil incident has attracted more media’s attention.

April

April 1, Yangshen (company that makes vaccines) in Jiangsu province admitted that 180,000 of their rabies vaccines do not meet the standards.

April 9, Chenzhou City Children’s Hospital used industrial oxygen instead of oxygen, causing panic.

April 11, Report showed rising in numbers of Parkinson’s disease in China, an annual increase of 100,000 cases.

April 15, news broke out in Hunan Province that during student medical examination, same needle tubing was used on multiple students for skin test.

April 19, news said diseased pigs were sold at restaurants and food stalls in Qingyuan, Guangdong.

April 22, Botox became widely used, but improper injections causing facial paralysis frequently occurred.

April 23, 73 tourists at Huairou Mountain in Beijing had nausea, vomiting and other symptoms after eating. After going to the hospital, doctor said the food they had contained clonidine, which was an expired high blood pressure medicine.

April 28, media exposed an oil factory in Changsha made and told 20 tons of “black heart oil”, mostly to college cafeterias.

May

May 4, a man in Wuhan sold sleeping pills mixed with flour to the entire nation as “imported medicine”.

May 11, a Foxconn employee committed suicide. Since January 23, 2010 Foxconn employees “first jump” to November 5, 2010, 14 Foxconn employees leaped to their deaths one after another, which causing great concern of the community all over the world.

May 23, In Lingbi County, Anhui, “problem cucumbers” brought down 13 people, caused by use of highly toxic pesticides.

May 25, a woman in Hainan died of poisoning after eating sunfish (also called the wheel fish).

May 26, in Shenyang, over 250 chickens died of diseases were found a smoked chicken joint. Sunset Yellow, Color Agent, other industrial dyes and also bags of iron rust were used to color the dead chickens.

May 27, a man believed that the electronic cigarette can cleanse his body, but he died suddenly after smoking it.

End of May, the Ministry of Health denied Zhang Wu his status of “Ministry of Health the first senior nutrition expert”. This former “most expensive Chinese doctor in Beijing” was discredited; his illegal clinic was also closed down.

June

June 3, the World Health Organization said, H1N1 outbreak still continued.

June 4, Hubei Province confirmed a case of human infection of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

June 7, Hong Kong Watson Drinks said to be infected with fungi.

June 11, poisonous sea snails were selling hot in the market, it was reported that eating one sea snail will cause death.

June 13, a large number of pigs died in Wuxuan County, Guangxi.

June 13, 30 people in Chongyang County, Hubei had great amount of lead in their blood.

June 26, in Qingdao a female teach died during liposuction weight loss surgery.

July

July 6, 8 children were poisoned from eating Jatropha in Hainan.

July 6, McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets said to contain two chemical components: one was in the clay toys “polydimethylsiloxane”, the other was extracted from oil “t-butyl benzene Diol”. McDonald’s said the amount of contents are lower than the international limits.

July 7, 22 patients at the Qichun County People’s Hospital all went into spasms after blood transfusions.

July 9, melamine milk powder was found in Gansu, Qinghai and Jilin.

July 14, Bawang shampoo was said to contain carcinogenic substances.

July 27, in Shenyang, a boy who started smoking when he was 8 died of heart attack. His blood vessels looked like a 60-year-olds’.

July 29, contraceptive market leader, “Yu Ting” was said to cause ectopic pregnancy.

August

August 2, Coca-Cola admitted the new product "Vitamin water" is not a health drink.

August 2, Shandong’s “Want Want Crackers” was found containing coliform bacterium.

August 5, milk powder was questioned for causing precocious puberty.

August 12, U.S. media reported that “super germs” spreading to the world, causing many deaths.

August 23, many people in Nanjing reported muscle degeneration after eating crayfish.

August 30, Hunan Jin Hao tea oil was found to contain carcinogenic substances which exceeding 6 times of the limit.

September

September 2, 26 villagers in a village of Yunnan Province all suffered emphysema; water pollution may be the cause.

September 2, cases of mosquito-bone disease were found in Guangdong.

September 8, more than 60 ophthalmic patients in Shanghai had adverse reaction after injecting Avastin. Subsequently, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration announced that what Shanghai First People’s Hospital was using, labeled with Product of Roche Company, number B6001B01 of Avastin is fake medicine.

September 8, ticks poisoning in Henan caused 18 deaths.

September 9, 19 students in Huaian were identified to have cholera.

September 14, 12 primary school students in Nanning, Guangxi were infected with pink eye.

September 15, outbreak of dengue fever in Dongguan.

September 16, in Foshan, Guangdong, a 66-year-old woman was killed by tsutsugamushi mite bites.

September 20, Vitamin C tablets with Yinqiao was said can cause adverse reactions or going into shock.

October

October 8, food poisoning incident occurred in a hotel in Luding County, Sichuan Province. Dozens were poisoned including the tourists, tour guides and hotel staff. One tourist died.

October 15, maggot infested oranges were found in Shandong, expert said do not panic after accidentally eating one.

October 16, Jiucheng perfume was found to contain carcinogens – phthalates. Currently there is no standard on the limit of phthalates.

October 17, Canton West Classic and the Guangxi Golden Tea oil products were found to contain some carcinogens.

October 19, it was reported that some food business in Hefei, Anhui when making lamb soup using banned substances as additives.

October 29, after an announcement paper was published by SFDA, fifteen weight loss drugs exit the market in a hurry, including the one sold for 10 years, Qumei weight loss capsule.

November

November 15, 24-year-old talent show star Wang Bei died in an accident during her plastic surgery.

November 17, a 59-year-old woman in Hong Kong who had visited Mainland till the end of last month was infected with H5N1 avian influenza virus. But it is not yet sure if she was infected locally or from outside.

November 22, dairy drinks that contain excessive melamine were found in Xiangfan, Hubei province.

November 23, State Administration of Quality Supervision announced that from March to August, 670 tons of dairy products imported to China are unqualified, in which infant formula was accounted for 7 percent. Most of them were originated from Australia. Main reason was because fungi or heavy metals exceeding limits.

November 24, City of Nanning seized more than 150 kilograms of mushrooms bleached with bleach.

November 29, CCTV "Focus" reported many foods on the market which contains vegetable butter may cause side-effects of trans fatty acids.