Tainted foods are daily problem in Asia
Sun, 17 Jun 2007 08:54:58 GMTBy MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
HANOI, Vietnam - As Nguyen Van Ninh needles his chopsticks through a steaming bowl of Vietnam's famous noodle soup, he knows it could be spiked with formaldehyde. But the thought of slurping up the same chemical used to preserve corpses isn't enough to deter him.
"I think if we don't see those chemicals being put in the food with our own eyes, then we can just smack our lips and pretend that there are no chemicals in the food," he said, devouring a 30-cent bowl of "pho" on a busy Hanoi sidewalk. "Why worry about it?"
While the discovery of tainted imports from China has shocked Westerners, food safety has long been a problem in much of Asia, where enforcement is lax and food poisoning deaths are not unusual. Hot weather, lack of refrigeration and demand for cheap street food drives vendors and producers to find inexpensive — and often dangerous — ways to preserve their products.
What's exported, for the most part, is the good stuff. Companies know they must meet certain standards if they want to make money. But in the domestic market, substandard items and adulterated foods abound, including items rejected for export.
Formaldehyde, for instance, has long been used to lengthen the shelf life of rice noodles and tofu in some Asian countries, even though it can cause liver, nerve and kidney damage. The chemical, often used in embalming, was found a few years ago in seven of 10 pho noodle factories in Hanoi.
Borax, found in everything from detergent to Fiberglas, is also commonly used to preserve fish and meats in Indonesia and elsewhere. Farmers in various countries often spray produce with banned pesticides, such as DDT.
"The people who do this want to make money. And if they're stupid and greedy, this is a bad combination," said Gerald Moy, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization in Geneva. "It's the wild West."
The quality of Asian food has come under harsh scrutiny after toxic substances were discovered in several Chinese exports.
Wheat gluten tainted with the industrial chemical melamine has been blamed for killing or sickening thousands of dogs and cats in North America. Fish containing pufferfish toxins, drug-laced frozen eel and juice spiked with harmful dyes were among other unsafe products shipped to the U.S.
Diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting thickening agent also used in antifreeze, has been blamed for the deaths of at least 51 people in Panama after the chemical was imported from China and mixed into cough syrup and other medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has halted all shipments of Chinese toothpaste to test for the same chemical reportedly found in tubes sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama.
The problems in Asia are not limited to China. Ice cream and sweets made with the same industrial dyes used for coloring garments have been found outside schools, and farmers have been caught dipping fruits in herbicide, to add shine, a day before going to market.
In India, pesticides often taint groundwater and produce. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been dueling with a New Delhi environmental group, which alleged it found unacceptable levels of pesticides in soft drinks.
Street food is another problem. Millions grab everything from chicken kebabs to rice porridge from unregulated food stalls where hygiene is often poor. Unsafe preservatives are sometimes added, and vendors typically use the cheapest oils and ingredients.
But the food is hot, cheap and tasty — a combination that often overrides safety concerns in countries where many still live on $2 a day.
"Asking for food quality would be a luxury," said Alex Hillebrand, chemical and food safety adviser at WHO's regional office in New Delhi. "They're hungry people."
Some countries, such as Thailand, are trying to improve domestic food safety. In bustling Bangkok, where pots bubble and woks sizzle at makeshift kitchens pitched on sidewalks, markets are issued test kits that can detect up to 22 contaminants.
No one knows the extent of chemical-laced food in Asia or how it will affect public health.
"It might be that you consume it today, but you don't see any effects for 10 years," said Peter Sousa Hoejskov, a food quality and safety officer at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Thailand. "Some foods have issues that are developing over a long, long time and others you have an immediate reaction."
China has faced outrage among its own citizens in recent years. Whiskey laced with methanol, a toxic wood alcohol, was blamed for killing at least 11 people in southern Guangzhou. Local media in Shanghai uncovered the sale of phony tofu made from gypsum, paint and starch.
At least a dozen Chinese babies died and more than 200 were sickened with symptoms associated with malnutrition after drinking infant formula made of sugar and starch with few nutrients. In another case, lard for human consumption was made with hog slop, sewage, pesticides and recycled industrial oil.
Some Vietnamese have been so shaken by news of tainted Chinese foods, they are changing their eating habits. They are avoiding Chinese-made products and paying more — up to $2 a bowl — for pho at an air-conditioned chain restaurant with signs promising no formaldehyde or borax.
"I am very, very worried about it," said Duong Thuy Quynh, 31, who was eating beef pho because she was also worried about bird flu in chicken. "I'm ready to pay more to protect myself and my family."
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Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta, Indonesia; Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, India; Anita Chang in Beijing; and Vu Tien Hong in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.
First Vietnam bird flu death since 2005
Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:52:38 GMTHANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam confirmed its first human death from bird flu since 2005, as the latest flare-up of the virus ravaged poultry stocks, official media said Saturday.
Tests confirmed the 20-year-old from northern Ha Tay province died from the H5N1 virus on June 10, the Vietnam News Agency ed Vice Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan as saying at a bird flu meeting.
The man's family raised about two dozen fighting cocks along with ducks, the agency said. His house and surrounding areas have been disinfected.
His death brought the country's toll to 43. Vietnam had not reported a human bird flu death since November 2005, though four other people were recently infected. Two have fully recovered.
A government reported cited by the online newspaper Vietnamnet said bird flu outbreaks in poultry have been reported in 18 provinces since early May. The outbreak has killed or forced the slaughter of nearly 200,000 birds, nearly all ducks.
The report blamed the latest outbreaks on negligence by local authorities in fighting the virus, which has killed at least 191 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was reported to have ordered local governments to work out detailed, aggressive measures to prevent the virus from spreading further.
"The risks of new outbreaks and the virus spreading on a large scale are huge," Vietnamnet ed the report as saying.
The disease remains hard for humans to catch, but experts fear it may mutate into a dangerous form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
Pentagon may drop mental health question
Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:26:23 GMTBy PAULINE JELINEK and ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON - U.S. troops would no longer be asked to reveal previous mental health treatment when applying for security clearances under a proposal being considered by the Pentagon.
The idea stems from the finding that service members avoid needed counseling because they believe that getting it — and acknowledging it — could cost them their clearance as well as do other harm to their careers, The Associated Press has learned.
"This is just one of several items under review by the Department of Defense and the services in an effort to remove the stigma associated with mental health issues," said Air Force Maj. Patrick Ryder.
The proposal is to omit a question regarding mental health treatment that appears on a form required by the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that does the majority of investigations for granting clearances to military and civilian workers in the federal government.
Currently, the questionnaire asks applicants whether they have consulted a mental health professional in the last seven years. If so, they are asked to list the names, addresses and dates they saw the doctor or therapist.
The Pentagon has been working for some time to end the stigma of counseling. Studies indicate that soldiers most in need of post-combat health care are the least likely to get it because they fear that others will have less confidence in them, that it will threaten career advancement and that it could result in loss of their security clearance and possibly removal from their unit.
Statistics indicate that the perception of stigma is "far worse than the reality" when it comes to getting security clearances, Ryder said. Last year, less than .05 percent of some 800,000 people investigated for clearances were rejected on the sole issue of their mental health profile, he said.
That's because the clearance process is done on the "whole-person concept" — that is, it weighs a number of factors about the person's past and present, favorable and unfavorable. People can be prevented from getting a clearance if they have been convicted and imprisoned, are addicted to any controlled substance, have been discharged dishonorably from the service or are currently mentally incompetent.
If the application for clearances is changed to omit the question on previous counseling, it would be just a small part of the effort to encourage service members to get mental health care.
An education program for personnel at all levels of the military is among main recommendations of a yearlong mental health study. The task force study, ordered by Congress, called for urgent action to improve care for members of the military, under strain from simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said earlier Friday.
A change already made is a program called Respect.mil, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the acting surgeon general of the Army, said at a news conference on the task force report. Under the program, instead of requiring soldiers or their family members to go to a designated location where it's clear they're getting behavioral health care, they can get the care at a primary care center.
The overall conclusion of the report was that it will take more money and staff to keep up with health care needed because of the high tempo of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long and repeated deployments in the wars have been blamed for some of the mental health problems.
The two "signature injuries" from the conflicts — mostly Iraq — are post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, the task force said, adding that the new demands "have exposed shortfalls" on a system that has not been war-focused for decades.
The military also needs to train leaders to understand that physical health and psychological health are equally important, said Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, co-chair of the task force.
"We concentrate a great deal on ... how fast can you run a mile, how many sit-ups and push-ups can you do," Arthur told reporters. "But we don't often concentrate on the psychological health of the service member."
"If you break your leg, it's not your fault; if you get cancer, it's not your fault; if you have a post-traumatic stress reaction, it's not your fault," he said.
Noting that the problem of stigma is pervasive not only in the military, but in American society as a whole, they said the evidence in the military is overwhelming. Fifty-nine percent of soldiers and 48 percent of Marines said thought they would be treated differently by leadership if they sought counseling, according to a survey among troops who had been deployed.
Of even greater concern, the report said, are recent findings that service members who screened positive for symptoms consistent with mental illness were twice as likely as those without symptoms to express concerns about stigma.
"Individuals exhibiting the greatest need were the most hesitant to seek care, even though empirical data from at least one military study indicates that service members do not suffer any negative career impact from seeking services related to their psychological health," the report said.
"Post-traumatic stress, combat stress is an absolutely normal reaction to a very abnormal situation," Arthur said, adding that care can prevent it from turning into a disorder.
"Combat is like nothing else that one can experience in peacetime. It is not like you see in the movies," he said. "It's not 90 minutes of show with 30 minutes of commercials and the good guy wins in the end. You have a real chance of being seriously injured or killed in your service to your nation."
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Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.
