Another one of those 'accidents', and the damage is done, irreversible, irreparable…
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DHAKA - The Bangladeshi authorities yesterday said that they had found traces of a toxic chemical in paracetamol syrup believed to have killed two dozen children in the past six weeks.
Health Minister AFM Ruhul Haq said investigators had found diethyl glycol in the locally-produced syrup.
"We conducted two tests on the paracetamol syrup and each time we found diethyl glycol. It's a toxic chemical used in the textile and leather dyeing industries. It damages your kidneys if you consume it," the minister said.
Mr Haq said that, instead of mixing the paracetamol with propylene glycol, which is used as a solvent in paracetamol syrup, the drug-maker added the toxic chemical because it is 10 times cheaper.
The 24 children who died were aged between one and five and came from Comilla, where the drug company concerned has been shut down.
Police are hunting for the company's owners and pharmacists. AFP
From TODAY, World – Wednesday, 29-Jul-2009
THE NEW YORK TIMES
NEW YORK - Poultry was the most commonly identified source of food poisoning in the United States in 2006, followed by leafy vegetables and fruits and nuts, according to a report by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The report is the first effort by federal researchers to identify how people in the US become sickened by contaminated foods.
The centres found most of the poultry-related illnesses were associated with Clostridium perfringens, a bacterium that commonly causes abdominal cramping and diarrhoea. The spores from this bacterium often survive cooking, so keeping poultry meat at temperatures low enough to prevent contamination is critical.
Researchers counted leafy vegetables, fungi, root vegetables, sprouts and vegetables from vines or stalks as separate categories.
Ms Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, noted that if all of the produce categories were combined, outbreaks associated with vegetables would have far exceeded those in poultry.
From TODAY, World – Weekend, 13/14-Jun-2009
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