Quality supervision authorities in eastern China's Zhejiang Province have promised to issue a set
of compulsory standards for plastic and paper food containers
within the next month.
That announcement was the Zhejiang Bureau of Quality and
Technical Supervision's first public response to media reports that
some factories in the province's Yiwu City used recycled plastic -
used compact discs - to produce baby bottles.
The bureau also announced the results of a recent inspection on
the 1,146 food container makers across the province. The action
uncovered 153 unqualified companies, according to a Zhejiang
newspaper report yesterday.
Late last month, a quality supervision program on CCTV reported
some factories in Yiwu, one of China's biggest small-commodities
distribution centers, purchased reclaimed plastic from processing
plants in Cixi, another Zhejiang city, as raw materials to produce
baby bottles.
The bottles were found to contain twice the level of
hydroxybenzene allowed by national standards. Hydroxybenzene is a
toxic chemical that dissolves in heated milk and can cause liver
and kidney damage.
The report drew Zhejiang authorities' attention to the issue.
From May 28, a task force jointly formed by provincial and city
authorities launched an inspection on the factories in Yiwu and
Cixi, which were in the CCTV report.
(Shanghai Daily June 15, 2006)