How to kill your kids, Chinese style

Ok, you have been feeding your children lead, dressed them in inflammable pyjamas and let them sleep on poisonous mattresses. And they are still alive. Chinese Rises points at this amazing gasoline-powered roller skates. When that is not effective?

Almost-accident a Shanghai Stadium subway station

Yesterday at line 4 of the Shanghai subway I saw how we came close to another accident that happened ten days ago described here by the Shanghai Public Transportation. Then a passenger actually got stuck between the "safety doors" and the subway and was killed when the train took off. Micah Sittig translates the story on a weblog, entered ten days earlier.
Yesterday a man fell with one leg between the train and the platform. The man seemed in pain and there was some screaming going on. He was just in time able to pull his leg out as both sets of doors started to close. A security man was at the scene and he was able to halt the train from leaving, but when there would have been a few seconds less to act, we might have seen another accident.
One of the conclusion of the witness of the deadly incident:

So I think that that the company is responsible for not creating a standard signal between the platform staff and the drivers, and that if there was a standard signal that the staff could make that the driver would understand and not start the train, then in today's situation the accident would have been avoided. So I think what's missing is a signal between staff and drivers for use in emergency situations, that is to say a signal that would emphasize that it's NOT ok to start the train.

What I see at some stations that since a day or ten some of the guards carry a green flag, indicating to the driver he can leave safely. But the systems is only used on a few platforms and certainly not on all platforms with safety doors. It looks like the system is only used after a really nasty incident.
My victim was relatively unharmed: his foot seemed painful and one of his shoe was laying under the train.

Traditional medicine kill annually 200,000

A story by Reuters that got remarkable little traction. Over the weekend, at a conference on the safety of traditional Chinese medicine in Guangdong, professor Jin Shiming disclosed that 200,000 Chinese die annually because of improper use of the stuff that should heal you.

Mainland Chinese rely more on traditional Chinese medicines than on Western drugs and they tend to use them carelessly because of a widespread misconception that traditional medicines are not toxic or have no side effects.
"People should be told that they can't consume drugs any way they want. There is no drug that has no side effects, they must not take drugs like they eat rice," said Professor Jin Shiming, a committee member of the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technological Association.

Further fall-out of the food crisis

Pressure on China to act is growing as the world is becoming worried about the quality of food products coming out of China. Some quotes, here from Reuters:

"This scandal has had severe consequences for the whole industry," said Chuk Ng, general manager of Nutrogen (Dalian) Co. Ltd, a company specializing in organic and non-genetically modified (GMO) farm products.
"Now the European and U.S. clients are checking every batch of products coming from China ... The GMO test is one. Now you add tests for melamine or other heavy metals or pesticides, the costs are very high, too high," Ng said.

In the International Herald Tribune:

"This isn't an international crisis yet, but if they don't do something about it quickly, it will be," says David Zweig, a China specialist who teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. "The question is whether it spills over and 'Made in China' becomes known as 'Buyer Beware.' "

China exports annually US$30 bn worth of drugs and food products.

SARS is back! - a column

Bill Fischer

IMD-professor and Chinabiz-columnist Bill Fischer hits out in his analysis of the recent China-related food scandals that have hit the world. China has been able to build up itself as a decent brand name, efforts that now are going down the drain. He refers to his earlier writings on SARS.

"This whole problem is not about reality, but about perceptions. It is not about what is currently happening in addressing the issue, as about what didn't happen. It is, frankly, all about fears of China being the source of the next viral outbreak, and the one after that, and the one after that."

That danger is now back in full force.
Bill Fischer is also on of the speakers in our upcoming China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in hearing him talk, please drop me a line.
More at Chinabiz.

Update: Jeremy Gordon at the China Business Blog gives his take. His company has been involved in investigating some of the scandals.