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Product Safety: When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out

By Steve Lombardi

The growing list of contaminated food products continues.

CONTAMINATED PRODUCT LIST: (Not exhaustive.)

Baby formula. Pet food. Ice cream bars. Liquid milk. Candy. Chocolate-filled cookies. Baby cereal. Cheese pizza. - Pizza Hut in Honk Kong.

COUNTRIES AFFECTED:

China - United States - New Zealand - European Union. - 27 nations - Myanmar - Hong Kong

France - Great Britain - Japan- Taiwan

BEIJING - The European Union banned imports of baby food containing Chinese milk Thursday as a toxic chemical that was illegally added to China's dairy supplies turned up in candy and other Chinese-made goods that were quickly pulled from stores worldwide.

The 27-nation EU adds to the growing list of countries that have banned or recalled Chinese dairy products because of the contamination, which has killed four Chinese babies and sickened 54,000. In addition to the ban, the European Commission called for more checks on other Chinese food imports.

Outside Shanghai, three zoo babies were found to have developed kidney stones after being nursed with tainted milk powder for more than a year. A lion cub and two baby orangutans were sickened after drinking infant formula made by the Sanlu Group Co., said Zhang Xu, a veterinarian with the Hangzhou Zhangxu Animal Hospital.

Can we expect this food contamination crisis to get under control soon?

Powdered baby formula laced with the banned industrial chemical melamine has been blamed in the illnesses of some 54,000 children and the deaths of four infants in China. But the World Health Organization said it did not expect the number of victims to grow dramatically.

What reforms are taking place in China to convince the world it won't happen again?

But another WHO official, Peter Ben Embarek, a senior scientist with the organization's department of food safety in Geneva, said China was dragging its feet in reforming its food safety system.

Are we safe with well known American brand names?

The list of problematic products grew with the Hong Kong government saying Friday it found traces of melamine in Heinz DHA+AA vegetable formula baby cereal and in steamed potato wasabi crackers produced by Silang House. Both products were made in mainland China.

Pizza Hut in Taiwan chains said Friday it was halting the supply of cheese powder to its restaurants because the powder was found to be contaminated by melamine.

Wu Yu-ping, an official with Pizza Hut in Taiwan, said the tainted cheese was supplied by Taiwan's Kaiyuan Company, but its source is not known.

This food contamination crisis is a lesson for all Americans about the problems with a global economy and what outsourcing challenges lie ahead for us. The American consumer will be required to protect AND to insure themselves in the future. Tort reforms have stripped away your right to seek compensation for injuries, regardless of fault or the necessity of being a good corporate citizen.

America, you wanted it, you voted for it, and now you are seeing the end result. So learn to live with it. Because if when called to serve you the jury vote to allow the wrongdoer (the tortfeasor) to walk out of the courthouse without being held accountable, then you the juror citizen have to learn to live in what is essentially a country with a third-world communist culture.

According to good and loyal tort reformists, no one is entitled to compensation for pain and suffering. No one is held to a reasonable man standard. No one is governed by standards, period. We all owe our pain and suffering to the masses. And in the end no one fears being held accountable and so they do whatever it is they want irrespective of the harm it may cause.

And please don't turn to the lawyers, because America, with tort reforms we can't help you. No. No. No. As Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoller said in 1892:

First they came.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Like I said, you wanted it and now you have to learn to live with it. If I can be so bold as to paraphrase his words for contemporary purposes.

Long Live The Tort Deformers!

When the tort reformists came against the injured plaintiffs,
I remained silent;
I was not an injured plaintiff.

When they mocked the democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a "liberal" democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for those asking us to pay our fair share of taxes,
I remained silent;
I hated paying taxes.

When they poisoned my milk,
there was no one left to speak out,

So instead,

I drank what they gave me.©

And so I ask you, will you speak for the weeping mothers and fathers as they bury those infant Chinese babies whose voices we will never hear?

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).