White Rabbit Sweets

I first saw this news on Phoenix News Channel. It said Philippines' authority found fake white rabbit sweets. Here's from GMA:

Chewy White Rabbit, 3 more China goods laced with formalin - BFAD
07/16/2007 | 09:22 PM



The famous White Rabbit creamy candy — which was once given as a gift to former US President Richard Nixon — and three other food products from China were found to contain the poisonous chemical substance formaldehyde, commercially known as formalin or formol.

The Bureau of Food and Drug (BFAD) came out with the findings, after inspecting for more than two weeks over 600 food products that the Philippines imported from China.

BFAD Deputy Director Joshua Ramos told GMA News’ 24 Oras on Monday that the agency’s report on the findings, signed by Director Barbara Gutierrez and submitted to Health Secretary Francisco Duque, will be used as basis to ban these products made in China.

“We will be issuing a public health advisory, advising consumers to refrain from buying such goods until (these) are proven safe," said Ramos.

The other three products found to be tainted with formalin are a brand of milk candy made by Romanticfish Food Industry, Bairong Grape Biscuits made by Dongguan Bairong Food Stuff Company and distributed by Goodway Int’l. Trading Corp. and Yong Kang Foods Grape Biscuits made by Dongguan Yongkang Food Company, Ltd.

“The distributors will be enjoined to withdraw (these products) from the market until such time that there will be evidence that they are safe," Ramos said.

GMA News said that based on the findings of the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, formaldehyde is linked to fatal diseases such as brain and lung cancer and leukemia.

Formaldehyde-based solutions are used in embalming to temporarily preserve human remains. It is also used for making glue, plastic and disinfectant.

The other kind of White Rabbit candy — the brown and hard one — already manufactured in the Philippines, does not contain formaldehyde, according to BFAD.

The White rabbit with a chewy and soft texture, wrapped in edible paper made of sticky rice is one of China’s top candy brands, manufactured in Shanghai by Guanshengyuan Food, Ltd.

According to an article posted on Wikipedia, the candy, similar to the European nougat, was given as a present to Nixon in 1972, when the then US president visited China. - GMANews.TV

Gosh!!!! What is up with China? There are so many reports about fake, tainted food and other products being export out of China. China's product's safety standards have come under immence criticism with regular reports of fake, shoddy or dangerous goods produced by their food and drug industry.

In the United States, there are tainted pet foods, dangerous toys, drugs, fish, typres, toothpaste from China which have led to a spate of recalls and bans there. Here's a Video of the News.

The most recent is the Cardboard Bun.
(I just heard over the radio that this news is fake too. Some reporters under pressure to get headline news hired actors to act as shady vendors.)

Being conscious about this fact, some consumers, like myself, will ask the vendors where their products come from. Some has complained that they get scolding from the shopkeepers. Sigh... but because Made in China is so cheap, we can't escape Made in China. Here's a report by The New Paper Reporter about how she tried to live her life withouth Made in China for a week and she gave up.

HIV positive and they don't know it

This is in the News today and it's scary.

From TODAY:

1 in 350 patients is HIV-positive and they don't even know it

More Singaporeans could be infected with HIV than they realise.


According to a recent Ministry of Health (MOH) study of more than 3,000 anonymous blood samples collected in hospitals, 0.28 per cent were HIV-positive.

The study, done earlier this year, excluded blood samples from known HIV patients.

This means one in 350 hospital patients who think they are free of the disease are actually HIV-positive. In comparison, there were 2,852 known HIV-infected patients in Singapore as of June last year, or about 0.06 per cent of the population.

The problem is "much more acute" for male patients, with a 15:1 male-to-female ratio in the sample population, said Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Foreign Affairs, speaking at the launch of a workplace Aids education exhibition.

The stunning findings made for a stark assessment of the HIV/Aids situation in Singapore, and showed the potential minefield health professionals may have to navigate.

Said Dr Balaji: "The methodology ensured that the patients whose blood samples were positive could not be traced ... (so) patients in this survey who've been misdiagnosed and wrongly treated will continue to remain misdiagnosed and will continue to receive the wrong treatment."

While a misdiagnosis of HIV "could be excused" 20 years ago, a misdiagnosis today could "very well lead to complaints of professional failure" against doctors and hospitals, he said.

For instance, some Aids patients could display chronic diarrhoea and weight loss. If a simple blood test for HIV were to be done, the correct diagnosis would be reached.

Without such a test, though, the patient could end up undergoing "expensive and unnecessary" procedures such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and colonoscopy. The diarrhoea and weight loss may be attributed to stress and the wrong treatment would be prescribed, said Dr Balaji.

Last year, Singapore experienced a record high of 357 new HIV positive cases.

Despite the "serious implications" of the latest study, Dr Balaji believes HIV testing, including for medical staff and hospital patients, should not be made mandatory.

"I don't think there should be a problem with healthcare workers, as they should be knowledgeable," he said. "What we need to do is make people understand how they can benefit by volunteering for tests. If we can educate people sufficiently, those who should go for testing will go for testing."

He called on the medical community to "mull over" the findings and come up with "innovative ways" of providing better care for HIV-positive patients.

"The MOH survey has identified a serious problem. We don't have all the answers but we should be willing to learn and introduce the best practices from others," said Dr Balaji, who is leading a study team to Sydney today to evaluate its HIV prevention programmes.

Dr Roy Chan, the president of Action for Aids, a non-governmental organisation for Aids prevention, believes there is no need to push the panic button.

He told Today: "In any country, Singapore included, there's a proportion of patients who, unknown to themselves and doctors, are infected."

While few countries have tried to determine how many HIV-infected patients are unaware of their condition, he noted that the MOH's findings are in line with the latest estimates for Singapore by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids).

According to UNAids, 0.3 per cent of adults here are HIV-positive. The MOH has also estimated previously that for every Aids patient identified, there are possibly two to four undiagnosed.

While "there's always a possibility" of a misdiagnosis, Dr Chan thinks that most healthcare workers here are alert to HIV symptoms and echoed Dr Balaji's views that Singapore must continue to encourage voluntary testing, particularly for those with high-risk behaviour.

But Dr Clarence Yeo, a general practitioner, does not think it is easy to spot early HIV symptoms, as some of these are common in other medical conditions, including cancer.

He said: "Beyond looking at the symptoms alone, if the person is also a high-risk patient, for example, he or she has multiple sexual partners or tends not to use protection (during sexual intercourse), it would be worthwhile to screen and test them.

"But if the patient doesn't wish to divulge such personal information, then it would not be obvious to us." - TODAY/yy

This is a scary finding. This means there are so many people with HIV virus who doesn't know and if they are sexually promiscious, imagine how many people they will infect? This is like a ticking time bomb walking on the street. Personally I feel that if you want to play the field, you need to take precaution. To protect yourself and to protect those you are sleeping with.

JH & JG - Donut - Part 2

After a short nap, Master JG woke up and said he's hungry.

JH: J are you going to try the donut now?
JG: Alrighhhhttt... I want the one with the chocolate.

JH handing a chocolate donut to JG.
JG took a bite.

JH: Well?
JG: Hmm... it's not as bad as I thought.

JG munching away. Chum.. Chum...

JG: Can I have one more?
JH: I thought Donut is not your thing?
JG: Well... it's not too bad. And it does say One is Not Enough. So I got to have 2.