Consumer Safety Ranks Low among Regime’s Concerns

http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=14466

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By YENI Friday, October 17, 2008

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In a reversal of its reliance on consumer goods from China, the military government in Burma has now advised its citizens to avoid buying Chinese dairy products.

The advice comes after Burma’s official newspapers initially ignored the tainted milk crisis in neighboring China, where several infants have died and thousands have fallen ill after consuming dairy products contaminated with the toxic industrial chemical melamine.

Despite the belated recognition of the threat and the subsequent government warning,
no task force has been formed to remove suspected melamine-contaminated dairy products from local stores.

The only action taken so far has been the destruction by the Burmese Food and Drug Board of Authority of 16 tons of tainted baby food imported from Inner Mongolia’s Yili Industrial Group.

There’s little protection for consumers who save money by buying repackaged milk powder sold in small plastic bags or which has passed its expiry date.



Because of a lack of regulations protecting consumer interests enacted by a government more interested in business connections that place profits over safety, it is unclear how many children in Burma have fallen ill after drinking milk products tainted with melamine, a chemical that mimics protein in testing.

This is not the only area lacking consumer protection. In the past few weeks, explosions occurred on three passenger-carrying vehicles apparently driven by compressed natural gas (CNG)—leading to general fear among the public about traveling on buses and taxis using this fuel.

In the latest incident, seven people died and one person was critically injured when the pickup truck in which they were travelling from Taikkyi Township to Rangoon’s main vegetable market, Thiri Mingalar, exploded. The driver, his assistant and five passengers were killed in the blast.

On October 10, a bus exploded in downtown Rangoon, although there were no casualties. Two people were injured in early September when a passenger bus exploded in Insein Township.

The Burmese authorities have said only that the cause of the latest blast is “under investigation.” Observers suspect that the regime wants to forget the incident because one business involved in converting vehicles to CNG and in the construction of CNG filling stations, the junta-friendly IGE Co Ltd, is run by sons of powerful Minister of Industry-1 Aung Thaung, who also is a protégé of Burma's supreme leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

So it’s hardly surprising that Rangoon people are worried about the safety of the city’s public transport. As one Rangoon resident put it—“It’s like sitting on a time bomb.”