The BBC reports that a China dairy requested media and relations help from officials:

The Chinese authorities have already acknowledged that the Shijiazhuang government sat on a report from Sanlu about milk contamination for more than a month while Beijing hosted the Olympic Games.

It now says that in a letter to the city government, Sanlu asked for help to “increase control and co-ordination of the media, to create a good environment for the recall of the company’s problem products”, the People’s Daily reported.

This is not a Chinese problem. This is a failure of leadership. I have commented several times on Governor Palin’s attitude towards data and bad news. Troopergate is a fine example. This is exactly the kind of problem I would expect from her in the White House. She is likely to focus efforts entirely on positive spin for corporations and self-promotion even at the cost of human life and great suffering.

“This is to avoid whipping up the issue and creating a negative influence in society,” the Sanlu Group is reported to have said.

Palin said she did not want any negative feedback in her office. Only when casualties and public outcry overwhelm this kind of leader will they be motivated to act. At that point they are likely to describe the situation as an “unforseen” emergency and ask for even greater power with less oversight to deal “efficiently” with the problems. Sound familiar?

The US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has revealed how insecure America has become as a result of the Bush administration attitude towards the environment. You might think a guy who likes to release photos of himself fishing and clearing brush would want to make the safety of wildlife and nature a top priority. Not so, says the truth and his record:

The purpose of this hearing is to examine the Bush Administration’s record on important public health and environmental matters. Unfortunately, instead of reviewing accomplishments—we look back on years filled with environmental rollbacks that serve special interests, and do not serve the American people.

Today, this Committee will shine a light on the Bush Administration’s efforts to undermine EPA and the Department of the Interior’s mission to protect public health and the environment.

Here is a typical example:

EPA proposed to do what it called the “CHEERS study” jointly with the chemical industry, in which low-income families were offered gifts and other incentives if they agreed to enroll their newborn children in pesticides studies in their homes over a two year period. After a great outcry, EPA cancelled the study. EPA recently tried to revive a study much like CHEERS, but retreated after our Committee’s staff asked detailed ethical questions about it, which EPA could not answer.

Apparently the administration has been gutting the agencies meant to protect the natural resources of the country, and disregarding evidence of harm to the people who live, work and play in them.

The Committee hearings are available for review in full online.

The update from Consumer Affairs is that Pyrex poses a deceptive safety risk to Americans and regulators are not doing anything about it:

It has been nearly three years since ConsumerAffairs.com first reported that consumers were being cut and burned by exploding Pyrex bakeware. The company was quick to deny the problem and government safety regulators seemed untroubled by the reports.

Three years later, not much has changed.

World Kitchen is the manufacturer of Pyrex and seems to think the problem is with the consumers.

On the front of a new Pyrex dish ConsumerAffairs.com purchased, the product’s label clearly states that it is “freezer safe … microwave safe … dishwasher safe … oven safe.”

But the fine print on the back tells a different tale:

“Avoid severe hot and cold temperature changes. … Use minimum amount of cooking time. … No stovetop, broiler, toaster oven, microwave, browner or any other direct heat source. … Do not add liquid to hot dish or place hot dish or glass cover in sink, immerse in water or place on cold or wet surfaces.”

How telling that they market the product up front for all the uses that the fine print on the back actually forbids. It is clearly unethical and deceptive to say something is safe for microwave and then warn people not to use the microwave, but here is something even worse:

“We cannot speculate on how someone was using their bakeware, and whether or not they were using it correctly,” wrote Bryan Glancy, World Kitchen spokesman. “Without examining the product, there is no confirmation that the product involved was Pyrex bakeware (as opposed to another manufacturer’s product). For this reason, unsubstantiated and unconfirmed reports of breakage should not be used as the basis for any conclusions to be drawn about Pyrex products.”

Why would people be complaining to Pyrex about other glass products that explode? How common is such confusion? I bet it never happens, but even if it happens once why try to use it as a primary reason to dismiss ALL consumer complaints? World Kitchen should setup a method to examine the product to confirm genuine Pyrex. Moreover, why speculate? Test bakeware using the claims from consumers and reveal the results to show safety. Perhaps even better is to use a 3rd party independent testing lab like Consumer Affairs.

The real issue here is that Corning licensed the Pyrex name in America to World Kitchen in 1998, and manufacturing quality/costs have declined. Corning licensed the Pyrex name to a different company in Europe, Arc International, and they have not had any of the same complaints or problems with exploding dishes.

Arc International’s Pyrex dishes cost about double what World Kitchen’s do in the U.S., but ConsumerAffairs.com has only one exploding Pyrex complaint from any country in the E.U.

ConsumerAffairs.com has complaints from every major English-speaking country where World Kitchen products are sold, including Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Apparently Pyrex is now found in 80 percent of American homes, and yet the US Consumer Product Safety Commission refuses to respond to requests for information or complete an investigation of World Kitchen Pyrex.

The glass experts concluded that the only Pyrex dish any of them would use would be one purchased before 1998. Otherwise, they’re cooking with metal.

I just threw away all my American Pyrex brand dishes. European standards have proven themselves to be more oriented towards consumer safety, rather than profit for executives, so I now buy European certified products whenever possible. Either way you look at it the money for products now goes to foreign companies, but at least products certified in Europe are more likely to be safe.