How Globalization Kills: Poisoned Medicine in Panama

May 19 (EIRNS)--An industrial chemical which killed 100 in Panama last fall when it was found in cough medicine, has now turned up in Panamanian toothpaste, some of which reached store shelves in Australia, according to the May 6 New York Times .

Under globalization, the unregulated production and trade in mislabeled and dangerous medicines has been increasing, leading to poisonings and deaths.

The cheaper--but toxic--chemical, diethylene glycol, was substituted for medicinal glycerin, which is similar in viscosity and sweet in taste. In the poisonings in Panama last fall, the New York Times traced the source to a fly-by-night company in China, which passed the chemical off as glycerin, looking to make a profit off of the price differential.

The modern U.S. Food and Drug Administration was created in 1938, after an incident in which a U.S. drug company had mixed diethylene glycol into an oral antimicrobial agent, killing 100 people, mostly children.