A sobering look at discount stores and counterfeit articles

| 1 Comment

In light of the crap coming in from China, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a good look at what is found at "discount" stores:

Discount counterfeits can be dangerous
Discount stores that scour the world for deals sometimes give shoppers something they didn't bargain for: bogus products of uncertain origin that may even be dangerous.

A prime example: this week's recall of toothpaste believed to be both counterfeit and toxic.

Government tests on the toothpaste, bought by federal investigators at a discount store in Maryland, revealed it contained diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze, a Food and Drug Administration spokesman said Thursday. Although the toothpaste was labeled as "Colgate," Colgate-Palmolive Co. said the imported 5-ounce tubes were falsely packaged counterfeits.

Foes of counterfeiting said it was an example of how it's more than CDs, DVDs, handbags and sunglasses that are getting faked these days.

"This has really become an issue where every industry is affected," said Caroline Joiner, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiative. The Chamber unveiled a lobbying effort Thursday to step up federal efforts in combatting a problem it estimates costs U.S. companies $250 billion a year in lost sales.

Lately, counterfeit drugs have repeatedly made headlines, even though the FDA concedes they are quite rare in the U.S. drug distribution system. Worries about fake drugs recently helped sink legislation in the Senate that would have permitted the importation of prescription drugs. When fake drugs do crop up, it's typically after they've been purchased over the Internet.

In May, the FDA relayed reports from three consumers who had purchased bogus Xenical, a weight-loss drug, from a pair of Web sites. Testing revealed that none of the capsules contained the active ingredient in Xenical - though one did include a drug found in Meridia, a competing medication, the FDA said. Other capsules contained nothing more than talc and starch.

Meanwhile, the galaxy of counterfeits continues to expand to include an ever-broader range of consumer products.

"It's to a point where we see fake auto parts -fake brake pads. We see toothpaste tainted with antifreeze and Underwriters Laboratories tags on electric cords that are fake and catch on fire," Joiner said.

In 2006, U.S. agents increased their seizures of counterfeit goods by 83 percent, making more than 14,000 seizures worth at least $155 million, the Homeland Security Department said earlier this year.

Even though many bogus goods, including the toothpaste, have murky origins, signs point to overseas - and China in particular. That country was the source of 81 percent of all phony goods seized in 2006, according to federal statistics.

The recalled toothpaste was labeled as made in South Africa but its toxic ingredient previously has been found in Chinese-made toothpastes. Colgate-Palmolive pointed out the packages it had examined bore several misspellings, including "SOUTH AFRLCA." That suggests even the bogus product's true origin may have been faked.

Its distributor could do little to explain the ultimate source of the toothpaste, which it sold at 60 cents to 70 cents a tube to discount stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

"We do not make it, we don't import it, we just buy it from a guy," said Chris Kim, manager of MS USA Trading Inc., the North Bergen, N.J., company that recalled the 100 cases of suspect toothpaste. A telephone message left for the source identified by Kim - a man he knows only as "Dialo" - was not immediately returned Thursday.

Buying a 'Rolex' or a Louis Vuitton bag for $20 may be fun but it changes when it comes to food and cosmetic items -- just because it looks like a Colgate product doesn't necessarily mean that that great deal really IS a Colgate product.

That American truism comes into play here -- You Get What You Pay For

1 Comment

Unless you're paying for transportation in the Puget Sound area.

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on June 16, 2007 10:12 AM.

An amazing office was the previous entry in this blog.

Department of Irony - Immigration into America is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9