Toxic Cough Syrup Causes Deaths in Panama

How a tailor in China passed glycol off as glycerin, and killed hundreds of children

By Colleen Barry, Newser Staff

Posted May 6, 2007 8:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – American drugmakers are on the lookout this week for another in the growing list of potentially deadly Chinese exports. This time, it's diethylene glycol, a sweet-but-toxic chemical that masquerades as glycerin in common medications like cough syrup and that has already killed almost 400 people—many of them children—in Panama.

A New York Times investigation tracks the chemical's deadly path back to China's Yangtze Delta, where a tailor with fake credentials passed off the glycol as glycerin syrup. The glycol moved through three continents undetected before a Panamanian doctor traced a wave of deaths to its presence in cough syrup. Chinese drug monitoring is "a black hole,” says a local trader.

Empty bottles wait to be filled with prescription medication at a pharmacy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in April 2004. (KRT Photos)

' (KRT Photos)

Cough syrup (Getty Images)

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Toxic Cough Syrup Causes Deaths in Panama

How a tailor in China passed glycol off as glycerin, and killed hundreds of children

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Colgate Cautions Against Fake Toothpaste

Counterfeit dentifrice may contain toxic chemical, company says

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FDA official says superiors ordered her to back off serious warning

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Toxic Cough Syrup Causes Deaths in Panama

How a tailor in China passed glycol off as glycerin, and killed hundreds of children

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OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

China • medicine • FDA • health • Panama • diethylene glycol • glycerin • cough syrup

MOST POPULAR STORIES

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Colgate Cautions Against Fake Toothpaste

Counterfeit dentifrice may contain toxic chemical, company says

Trail of Chinese Chemicals Leads to Toothpaste

Governments on two continents investigate tainted product

Controversy Rages Over Diabetes Drug's Heart Risks

FDA official says superiors ordered her to back off serious warning

Diabetes Drug Ups Heart Risk

New study documents dangers of Avandia, but company nixes recall

Doctors Paid Millions To Use Anemia Drugs

Among the world's top-selling medicines, the FDA now says they may be unsafe

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