FDA Identifies Heparin Contaminant (Cheap replacement, Chinese manufactured, imported by Baxter)

[elehhhhna]

FDA Identifies Heparin Contaminant
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - U.S. health regulators have identified the contaminant found in Baxter International's blood thinner heparin, which may be to blame for 19 deaths.

The Food and Drug Administration says a chemical compound called oversulfated chondroitin sulfate has been found in samples of the drug tied to death and allergic reactions.

ShareFDA staff say the chemical comes from a family similar to heparin, but that it is not approved in the U.S. or abroad as a medical treatment.

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/03/19/ap/headlines/d8vgj4io0.txt

Hit other storied for the lowdown on the Chinese manufacturer who replaced heparin w/ a cheap, unapproved substance. It's called "counterfeiting" but the drug was MADE FOR & IMPORTED BY a US company.

P.S. Watch out for those "dangerous" Canadian 'scrips, okay?

[Quakerfriend]

1. The public should be raising hell over this. But, I mentioned

the tainted heparin to an office mate of mine who just got discharged from the hospital for bilateral pulmonary embolism. This is a serious,life threatening emergency that requires heparin.

She didn't care to know whether her heparin might have been tainted.

Seems to be the American way. Same as with our GE foods. Lack of labeling for FDA approved cloned animals. Not many care to know, let alone do something about it.

[mac2]

3. They also use Heparin in open heart surgery.

They pump the blood through a machine while they operate on the heart..valves, etc. It prevents clotting.

It's a critical drug.

I hope Cheney has good Heparin for his heart operation.

[enlightenment]

8. May I ask a question?

I'm not trying to attack, I'm just curious.

I have not read any scientific, peer-reviewed studies that indicate cloned animals are dangerous to eat. There's a lot of noise about it, but I haven't seen any studies that prove it dangerous. Granted, I don't know much about the process, but I do know these animals are not grown in test tubes (any more than in vitro humans spend a few days of their early existence in a petri dish).

Do you know of some evidence that suggests cloned animals are dangerous for consumption?

I ask because it concerns me when I see "tainted drug" "GE foods" and "cloned animal" in the same sentence.

The first is a danger that has been proven and verified. The second has some evidence of danger, proven and verified - but not in all cases. The third, as far as I know, is a presumed danger that has not been proven or verified.

If I'm wrong about the third, I apologise in advance - but when I see this sort of conflation it bothers me because it reduces the power of the the argument. It smacks of hysteria, not reason.

[eShirl]

9. whether it's dangerous or not, it should be labelled for what it is

so those people who have a problem with it (for whatever rational or irrational reason) can decide for themselves if that's what they want

[kestrel91316]

10. Whether or not cloned meat is safe or dangerous is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.

Consumers are entitled to free choice. If they don't wish to patronize food produced by a certain technology, for political or environmental or health reasons or for no reason at all, they have the right to the information.

[enlightenment]

12. No need to shout. I can read you just fine.

I wasn't on the attack. Hold your fire for someone who deserves it, please.

I appreciate your response (you also, shirl).

[kestrel91316]

13. I wasn't shouting. All caps is shouting. A word or two in caps is emphasis.

IF I'M SHOUTING AT YOU, YOU'LL KNOW IT!!!!!!!!! lol

I don't use the ubiquitous asterisks on either side of a word to show emphasis, because that is not legitimate use of punctuation and my inner English teacher won't allow it.

[enlightenment]

15. Umm - my inner history teacher

suggests italics instead, or perhaps an underline. But I see your point. ;)

I'm not sure there is a legitimate use of punctuation on a message board. Particularly when we cannot format the subject line, which is where so many of us try to make our initial point (I'm guilty of that much of the time). There are certainly many who feel that all the rules are suspended; spelling, grammar, syntax, and punctuation!

I'm not a fan of emoticons, but years of using this form of communication has convinced me that they are often necessary. I am a very visual speaker, if that makes sense - much gesturing and facial expression on my part, and considerable attention to the non-verbal cues of the people with whom I am speaking. Message board communication is often painfully difficult for me.

sigh.

[kestrel91316]

20. I have no clue how to do italics or underlining on these posts.

Probably involves HTML or some such? Which I know ZIP about.....

[enlightenment]

21. Ah. That one I finally figured out!

Do this for italics, underlining or bold:

italics : [i]your text[/i]

underline:  [u]your text[/u]

bold: [b]your text[/b]

(I turned off the HTML in this post so you can see the actual
code that you use - otherwise you'd just see the italicised,
underlined, and bolded "your text")

You can click on the HTML Lookup Table (it's a blue link right
above the place you type your subject line) when you're
posting a message and it gives you that info - and more.  It
opens in a separate window so you can reference it while
you're typing.

[mac2]

2. Where is Tom DeLay?

[Horse with no Name]

4. Unfortunately, with the healthcare "delivery" system in this country

cheap wins over quality everytime.

Now for some REALLY deep thought, where do you suppose those $4 prescriptions being hawked at Walmart come from?
And what segment of the population is the predominant consumer of them?

[Brigid]

5. Wow.

I was given heparin while I was in the hospital back in January for open-heart surgery. I guess if it was tainted, I would know it by now, but still . . . :scared:

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Two words: Unfettered Republicanism

Its a sickness, not a political party.

[eShirl]

7. assholes... everyone or most everyone on dialysis has heparin with every treatment

for someone with complete kidney failure, that's 3 times a week for 4 hours with two large needles shoved in your arm, or else a catheter in your neck or somewhere else

like they are not suffering enough!

:mad:

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Do ya'll get the impression the Chinese are doing this on purpose?

'Cuz I sure don't hear too much about a Chinese health crisis due to product contamination in China.

[elehhhhna]

14. They are cleaning up their pollution by selling it to us.

[Hannah Bell]

18. There have been some news reports about food contaminants

etc. in China itself as well.

also, a fair amount of supposedly "chinese" production is really offshored "foreign" production. So you never know who's profiting. Could be europeans, japanese, americans.

[Hannah Bell]

16. The Chinese make the majority of the world's vitamin C

& a good quantity of other nutritional supplements as well.

Interesting quality control on an essential drug like heparin was so poor.

[lonestarnot]

17. Damn! I wonder how many other different drugs are affected by Chinese imports

Are we now going to have people dying off like the dogs?

[Vinca]

19. I don't understand why they give us a hard time about buying

prescription drugs from Canada when U.S. firms are importing tainted Chinese garbage. Guess I was so naive I actually thought drug manufacturers made the stuff close to home where they could keep an eye on the factories. Profit and greed win out again.