China Blames Panama for Tainted Products

BEIJING -- China acknowledged it was misleading for Chinese companies to label an industrial solvent as glycerin but blamed businesses in Panama for the poison turning up in cold medicine there, killing at least 51 people.

Wei Chuanzhong, a senior official in China's product-inspection agency, also dismissed concerns about Chinese toothpaste made with the same substance _ diethylene glycol.

There is "no sound evidence" to indicate that the chemical is dangerous in very low concentrations, Wei said, suggesting that the seized Chinese brands had safe amounts of the chemical.

Panama and at least three other Latin American countries have seized tens of thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste sold under the brands "Excel" and "Mr. Cool."

The United States halted all imports of Chinese toothpaste last week to test for diethylene glycol _ a chemical commonly used in antifreeze and brake fluid.

Wei's remarks were China's highest-level public comment on the cold medicine case, the most disturbing in a series of scandals concerning tainted or unsafe food, medicines and other Chinese exports.

The growing international outcry has Beijing worried that its goods could be banned from overseas markets. China's dismal drug safety record was underscored this week by a Chinese court's decision to sentence to death the country's former top drug regulator.

China admits it was the source of the deadly chemical that ended up in cough syrup and other treatments but insists the chemical was originally labeled as for industrial use only.

Wei acknowledged that the Chinese manufacturer, Taixing Glycerin Factory, and the Chinese distributor, CNSC Fortune Way, "engaged in some misconduct," because they used the name "TD glycerin" for a mix of 15 percent diethylene glycol and "other substances."

Diethylene glycol, or DEG, is a thickening agent used as a low-cost _ but frequently deadly _ substitute for glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs.

"They used the very confusing name of TD glycerin, which will mislead people to think it's glycerin," Wei said. "The markings on the package also used the name glycerin instead of TD glycerin."

But he said the Panama traders bore most of the responsibility for the deadly substance ending up in medicine.