Share Story
Send to KindleRelated News
Drug capsules dumped in sewage amid scandal
By Wei Ran |
April 23, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LARGE amounts of drug capsules were dumped into a sewage discharge in a central Chinese city, presumably by illegal workshops, as police intensified their crackdown on chromium-laced capsules made from industrial gelatin.
The sewage flow was dyed blue, and different colors of capsules were visible floating in the water, resembling a rainbow for a 300-meter stretch in rural Zhengzhou, capital city of Henan Province, China News Service reported yesterday.
No brand name was found on the capsules. Despite being soaked in water overnight, they still felt like hard plastic shells and were easily smashed. The Zhengzhou Drug Administration launched an investigation into their source.
China has confiscated more than 77 million drug capsules made from toxic industrial gelatin, which contains excessive levels of chromium, in a growing national scandal.
Villagers working at a local factory in Zhengzhou worried that the river could be polluted if the capsules were poisonous.
Sun Baozhou, director of Sanshilipu Village, told Dahe.cn, a local news portal, that no pharmaceutical factory was located near the village but there used to be a few illegal capsule workshops in the area, which had been shut down a few months ago.
Sun suspected there might still be some living production lines in the village.
Also in Henan Province, bags of drug capsules were found piled up in a Guodian County grain field last Sunday. Some were sealed in aluminum foil board, on which the brand name "Square Pharma" was found.
The capsule scandal came to light after China Central Television reported that several companies were using industrial gelatin to make medicine capsules.
About 80 illegal production lines across the country have been shut down.
The sewage flow was dyed blue, and different colors of capsules were visible floating in the water, resembling a rainbow for a 300-meter stretch in rural Zhengzhou, capital city of Henan Province, China News Service reported yesterday.
No brand name was found on the capsules. Despite being soaked in water overnight, they still felt like hard plastic shells and were easily smashed. The Zhengzhou Drug Administration launched an investigation into their source.
China has confiscated more than 77 million drug capsules made from toxic industrial gelatin, which contains excessive levels of chromium, in a growing national scandal.
Villagers working at a local factory in Zhengzhou worried that the river could be polluted if the capsules were poisonous.
Sun Baozhou, director of Sanshilipu Village, told Dahe.cn, a local news portal, that no pharmaceutical factory was located near the village but there used to be a few illegal capsule workshops in the area, which had been shut down a few months ago.
Sun suspected there might still be some living production lines in the village.
Also in Henan Province, bags of drug capsules were found piled up in a Guodian County grain field last Sunday. Some were sealed in aluminum foil board, on which the brand name "Square Pharma" was found.
The capsule scandal came to light after China Central Television reported that several companies were using industrial gelatin to make medicine capsules.
About 80 illegal production lines across the country have been shut down.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
