Shanghai.
Chinese police have detained 22 people for making drug capsules using a toxic
raw material produced from scrap leather, state media said, in the latest in a
string of product safety scandals.
Police in
the eastern province of Zhejiang found the suspects allegedly made and sold
capsules with excessive levels of chromium after using industrial gelatin made
from discarded leather, the Xinhua News agency said late on Monday.
Chromium,
which has several industrial uses including leather tanning, can cause cancer.
China has
been hit by a series of product safety scandals, often involving food or
pharmaceuticals, despite government pledges to improve supervision, and public
outrage over lax controls and official corruption is on the increase.
According
to Xinhua, at least half of the people detained worked for capsule makers in
Zhejiang’s Xinchang county, a major production base.
Police and
government departments of Zhejiang and Xinchang county were not immediately
available for comment.
According
to the report, the industrial gelatin used to make the capsules came from other
factories in the northern province of Hebei and the eastern province of
Jiangxi.
In another
twist to the scandal, police also detained a factory owner in Hebei for allegedly
setting fire to his own plant to destroy evidence of making industrial gelatin,
Xinhua said in a separate report on Tuesday.
Song
Xunjie, manager of the Xueyang Glair Gelatin Factory, is said to be a supplier
to companies across the country, it added.
The
government’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), the industry regulator,
on Sunday also suspended sales of 13 types of drugs confirmed to have excessive
levels of chromium.
The case is
the latest in a long series of product safety scandals.
In November
last year, authorities busted a gang that produced and sold fake medicine —
some made of animal feed — arresting 114 suspects and seizing more than 65
million counterfeit tablets.
And Zheng
Xiaoyu, former head of the SFDA, was executed in 2007 for accepting $850,000 in
bribes in exchange for granting approval for hundreds of medicines, some later
found to be dangerous.
Agence France-Presse
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