Toxic cough syrup kills 100 in Panama

China: A Chinese company allegedly caused the death of 365 people in Panama - 100 of them a confirmed cause of death. Taixing Glycerine Factory had substituted glycerine, which is a common ingredient in cough syrup, fever medication and other drugs, as well as in food products, with diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting industrial solvent. Government officials had unwittingly mixed it into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine. The counterfeit glycerine had passed through several trading companies from China to Spain, and then to Panama.

False certificates that had been repeatedly altered attested the purity of the contents. Traders bought the syrup without knowing where it came from or who made it, and without testing the solution. The victims suffered from kidney failure, problems of the central nervous system, and paralysis which made breathing difficult. In the end, most of them died. Investigations revealed that neither the producer nor the Chinese exporter was supervised by China's drug administration.

Sources: The New York Times, 9 May 2007; Straits Times, 8 May 2007; The New York Times, 6 May 2007
Asian Casualty Report 10th Edition June 2008 – Gen Re