The proposed 24 hectare park will include a monument to the victims. It will also house new city kindergartens and some 5,000 new apartments for residents whose homes were damaged in the blast.

High traces of cyanide were discovered at the blast site last month, which officials maintain pose no health risk to Tianjin residents.

Twelve suspects have been detained in connection with the explosions, including 11 officials and port executives accused of dereliction of duty and abuse of power. No criminal charges have been laid.

Last month, the Communist Party fired the head of China’s work safety regulator for suspected corruption. Coincidentally, the regulator was the former deputy mayor of Tianjin. Despite firing the official, the Party has not accused him of any direct responsibility for the explosion.

A growing death toll from the Tianjin blasts currently puts the number of fatalities at 160.

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The dead fish appeared yesterday about six kilometers away from the blast sight.

The director of the Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Centre, Deng Xiaowen, said his department will immediately look into it. Other agencies such as the fisheries department are also said to be investigating.

Deng said there isn’t enough evidence yet to blame the chemical explosion for the dead fish, adding it could be from any number of reasons (which is in itself alarming). Some reports say the waters around Tianjin are so polluted anyway fish often die at this time of year.

At the present time, wWater in Tianjin harbor is locked behind a sluice, preventing it from escaping into the neighboring Bohai Sea. Tests on the water indicate it does not meet environmental standards.

Meanwhile, the chief engineer at the Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau and head of the environmental protection team at the scene of the explosion Bao Jingling said the blast area is under military control as they test for chemicals and other pollutants. This past Monday, Bao reassured the people of Tianjin that there was no threat to their health in the wake of the explosions. “People do not need to worry about the air and water quality around the blast zone,” said Bao.

Bao pointed out that no harmful pollutants, including sodium cyanide, were found in samples collected from rivers, waste water and the sea. Meanwhile, the State Oceanic Administration said no harmful pollutants were found in the Bohai Sea around Tianjin in tests as of Sunday.

So far 114 people have died from the explosions and 69 remain unaccounted for.

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Heinz announced last Friday that it is recalling four batches of Heinz AD Calcium Hi-Protein Cereal, an infant food, once Zhejiang food safety regulators said they had tested the product and found excessive amounts of lead.

The Hangzhou municipal inspection bureau first told provincial authorities about the problem on August 4. Two days later, Zhejiang authorities visited Heinz management and asked the company to fully comply with the investigation, to reveal the cause of the contamination, and to compensate consumers.

However, the recall was only made public on August 15, nine days later.

The delay in notifying consumers of the contaminated baby formula has outraged consumers in China, many of whom have called for strong punitive measures against Heinz. “There no need to doubt that Heinz was fully aware of the law when it acted in an untimely manner in dealing with this recall,” said Shanghai lawyer Wu Dong.

Famous food expert Wang Dingmian was much more specific in suggesting Heinz should be held responsible. “Heinz has repeatedly had problems with quality, and yet has not learned from its mistakes. For treating the health of babies as a game and for its vile nature, it should be punished severely.”

The Zhejiang Food and Drug Inspection Bureau said 1,472 boxes of the product are contaminated. Heinz said it will destroy another 153 boxes held in a Guangzhou warehouse.

The Guangdong Food and Drug Inspection Bureau said it will be conducting its own investigation into the cereal, which is manufactured in Guangdong.

The specific batches named in the recall are 400g boxes of Heinz AD Calcium Hi-Protein Cereal with the production dates numbers of 20140413, 20140414, 20140508, and 20140509.

Photos: Sina Finance, CCTV

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A self-claimed vet injects oxytocin into a cow at the farm.

Recently, we told you about the industrial salt being passed off as table salt throughout Guangdong. The most recent staple to watch for however, is your milk.

About 300 kilograms of cow milk injected with oxytocin may have been sold to Shunde, Guangzhou and other cities in Guangdong Province, New Express Daily reported on March 27.

An unlicensed dairy farm in Gaoming district in Foshan has been using the hormone on cows to increase the amount of milk extracted. The drug, often used on women to induce labour, is injected into cows to induce muscle contraction around the cows’ nipples, causing milk ejection out of the glands and milk ducts.

A self-professed vet working on the farm told the newspaper’s undercover reporter that they typically use the drug on the cows twice a day to help extract milk. When injected with the drug, cows are often able to produce milk in as little as 15 minutes, said the vet.

When asked by the reporter about the appropriate dosage used, the vet said: “We are quite familiar with what quantity to use. After all, when you use too much, it’s simply a waste of the drug.”

A woman working on the farm told the undercover reporter that about 200 kilos of milk extracted in the morning would be sold to Shunde, and 100 kilos produced in the afternoon would be distributed to Guangzhou. They also supply some milk tea shops (奶茶店), she said.

The potential health consequences of consuming the contaminated milk were not specified in the story, but according to a report by the Indian newspaper, Economic Times, sustained consumption of oxytocin can cause a hormonal imbalance in humans and may harm the reproductive system of animals, thus reducing their life span.

An article by Care2, a US social web portal for green issues, said a substantial part of the oxytocin injected into cows can seep into milk, and children are particularly susceptible to its harmful effects. Side effects include: imbalanced hearing, reduced vision, and lethargy.

Besides oxytocin, the reporter at the farm witnessed the use of antibiotics, vitamins, Chinese herbal medicines and penicillin.

Home page and content photo credit: New Express Daily

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Easy on the salt, not just for the sake of your blood pressure! These days in Guangzhou who knows what “salt” you are sprinkling on your food.

Nanfang Metropolis Daily reported that about 26 tons of fake salt, mainly industrial salt, was uncovered in Guangzhou in the first half of the month, according to figures released by the provincial salt industry group on March 15, China’s consumer day.

Industrial salt, which contains excessive levels of metals, are not safe for human consumption. Some industrial salt that contains sodium nitrite can sometimes result in deaths. The confiscated salt has been circulated in Baiyun, Huadu, Zengcheng and other overlaying regions between city and countryside, the report said. The salt was smuggled from central Jiangxi Province, and stocked in several warehouses in places such as Baiyun before being distributed in Guangzhou.

An executive from the provincial salt group said 96% of the 650,000 tons of salt consumed annually in the city was safe. But still, you don’t want to be the one buying the remaining 4%, if the numbers are reliable.

Here is a trick identified by the newspaper to tell if the Yuepai salt (粤牌盐) is table salt or not: fake salt often has folds around the edges, while real salt doesn’t. Here is a comparison of edible Yuepai salt and the bogus one (top). Courtesy of Orange Net:

Home page and content photo credit: Nanfang Metropolis Daily 

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Now we’re getting news that the river isn’t as clean as some would like to think.  Bloomberg recently reported that 9.5 billion tons of raw sewage, or 75% of the province’s total, was dumped untreated into Guangdong rivers last year, with over half that amount poured into the Pearl River.

Needless to say, gross.  Bloomberg reports:

The report said that 30 percent of rivers in eastern Guangdong are polluted, threatening the health of people who live along their banks. Guangdong, with a population of 104 million people, has China’s largest economy and is one of the world’s biggest manufacturing centers.

 

This has a big impact on Hong Kong and Macau as well, which both sit in the Pearl River estuary.

While local politicians make a big stink about cleaning up the environment, it’s apparent that there’s a long way to go.

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