China on Thursday blamed Panamanian traders for falsifying documents on a Chinese chemical product that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Panamanian people who had taken tainted medicines.

"The Panamanian merchants are mainly responsible because they changed the scope of use and shelf-life of this product," said Wei Chuanzhong, Vice Minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The product, "TD glycerin", an industrial solvent, was made by the Taixing Glycerin Factory, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, and sold by state-owned Beijing distributor CNSC Fortune Way to Spanish firm Rasfer in 2003.

Investigations showed that Taixing used a confusing product name, "TD glycerin", which was easily misinterpreted as glycerin, and failed to clearly indicate the product ingredients, which included toxic diethylene glycol.

The company also used the trade mark "Glicerine" which was also inappropriate.

"But the Chinese company confirmed with the Spanish company that the product could not be used in pharmaceuticals in China and its shelf-life was one year," said Wei.

According to evidence provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a Panamanian government statement, Panamanian merchants bought the products from the Spanish company and changed the product name into "pure glycerin", which is allowed to be used in pharmaceuticals in the United States. They also changed its shelf-life to four years.

"When the falsified products were used by pharmaceutical companies in Panama, they had been expired for two years," said Wei.

The Chinese government sent investigators on May 10 and 23 to the factory in Taixing city which produced "TD glycerin" to trace its production and sale on the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the team investigated CNSC Fortune Way, which was involved in export of the product.

Last year dozens of Panamanians died after taking medicines which were contaminated by diethylene glycol used in place of the similar but more expensive safe compound frequently found in medicines, glycerin.

Foreign media reported that a Chinese company was accused of making and selling a fake drug ingredient that led to the incident.

Wei also said the alleged toxic toothpaste imported from China to Panama was up to safe standards.

He said the two brands of toothpastes, "Mr. Cool" and "Excel", were exported from the legally registered Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co. in Jiangsu Province.

"The company marked the component of diethylene glycol on the package as required by the foreign trade agency and delivered the products in conformity with contract terms," said Wei.

In 2000, Chinese experts confirmed through tests on 1,965 people that the toothpastes containing less than 15.6 percent of diethylene glycol were harmless to humans.

So far nobody had been reported poisoned by toothpaste containing diethylene glycol, said Wei.

He said the Chinese government would strengthen supervision and management of the content of diethylene glycol in toothpastes to fully protect consumers.

"We will set a limit on the use of diethylene glycol in toothpastes, and establish a supervision system in toothpaste production and marketing process." said Wei.

About 50 tubes of Chinese toothpaste labeled "Excel" and "Mr. Cool" were seized from a store in Panama city in mid May, and experts confirmed through tests that the toothpaste contained about a 2.5-percent level of diethylene glycol.

Although the country's Health Ministry General Secretary Francisco Sucre said the levels were harmless, the ministry urged consumers not to use the products.

The Chinese government immediately called together directors of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, State Food and Drug Administration and China Customs to form an investigation team.

Source: Xinhua