Other Stories

Blankets recalled

Wellington — Chinese-made blankets are being recalled in Australia and New Zealand because they contain high levels of potentially dangerous formaldehyde, the importer said Wednesday. Amid rising concerns about the safety of Chinese exports and tests showing high levels of the chemical in Chinese clothing imported into New Zealand, consumers were warned to return the blankets. Wholesale firm Charles Parsons said the level of fomaldehyde in the Superlux brand of blankets "may cause short-term skin or respiratory irritation." The recall came as New Zealand’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs said it planned to start testing Chinese-made clothing for formaldehyde next week. New Zealand television consumer programme Target reported earlier this week that some clothing imported from China contained levels of formaldehyde 900 times higher than was believed safe. Formaldehyde is used to prevent creasing in clothes and fabrics but is also linked to health problems ranging from skin complaints to cancer. Chinese exports have attracted international scrutiny following several high profile incidents. Last week, US toy giant Mattel recalled 18 million Chinese-made products worldwide, citing serious concerns for children’s safety over easily swallowed magnets and lead paint. — AFP

Hepatitis C vaccine

Vienna — Austrian vaccine maker Intercell said on Monday interim results from a small sample size of a Phase II study for a Hepatitis C vaccine showed a significant viral load reduction and very good safety profile. The first data came from 25 patients in an exploratory clinical study of 50 patients who were chronically infected with Genotype 1 of the Hepatitis C virus, Intercell said in a statement. The patients enrolled in the study were given eight injections of the IC41 vaccine in bi-weekly intervals for 14 weeks in an intensified scheduled derived from a recent optimization study, said Intercell. The company said it hoped the study would show that the reiterative vaccinations in the treatment period would lead to an increased constant and sustained decline in viral load among the patients. — Reuters

Vitamin-packed foods

Kuala Lumpur — A global health group Wednesday urged governments across Asia to enact laws against massive malnutrition that would require food producers to include vitamins and minerals in their products. Lack of vitamins and minerals have left millions of Asians vulnerable to disease, and about one million children younger than five die annually because of this, the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI) network said here. Globally, an estimated 50,000 young women during pregnancy and child birth also perish and 200,000 cases of serious birth defects are recorded each year because of the problem, it said. FFI coordinator Glen Maberly said previous experience showed food producers can help if they fortify foods with minerals. Malnutrition can cost the global economy between 180 to 250 billion dollars in healthcare costs over the next decade, the group said. In contrast, the total public investment needed to address the problem only comes to between four and five billion dollars, it said. — AFP

China retaliates

Beijing — China said Wednesday it had discovered many safety problems with soybeans imported from the United States, urging US authorities to deal with the problem. It detailed a series of safety problems, including the discovery of sorghum halepense and other exotic harmful weeds among the soybeans. There was no mention in the statement of any plan to restrict or halt imports of US soybeans. — AFP

China’s HIV cases

Beijing — Unsafe sex has for the first time overtaken drug abuse as the leading cause of HIV cases in China, a trend that could make it tougher to control the spread of the virus, state media reported Monday. Of the 70,000 new infections reported in 2005, 49.8 percent were contracted through sexual contact, the Ministry of Health and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a joint report, according to theChina Daily. Efforts to curb the new trend were targeting China’s burgeoning sex industry, the China Daily said, adding that the government had initiated a campaign to make sex workers force clients to use condoms, a drive inspired by the 100-percent condom use campaign in Thailand. — AFP


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