By This just goes to show why when looking to buy food I always make sure it is not a product coming from China:
Up to 10 percent of rice grown in China is contaminated with harmful heavy metals stemming from pollution linked to the nation’s rapid industrialisation, a report said.
This week’s edition of the New Century magazine cited studies showing that large amounts of Chinese rice have been tainted with heavy metals like cadmium for years but that little has been done to highlight the dangers.
“During China’s fast-paced industrialisation, activities such as mining have sprung up everywhere, releasing into the environment chemical elements like cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other harmful heavy metals,” the report said.
“These harmful heavy metals have spread through the air and water, polluting a rather large area of China’s land … a complete chain of food contamination has existed for years.” [AFP]
Koreans know all to well about contaminated food from China.
6:53 pm on February 16th, 2011 1
You know, there are smelters in South Korea too.
10:03 pm on February 16th, 2011 2
And there are smelters in Canada and United States too, so what's your point?
10:09 pm on February 16th, 2011 3
The US isn't selling contaminated rice to Korea, for one. Where are the crazy protests, ala "mad cow"? Where's the SBS Campaign? The outrage?
10:48 pm on February 16th, 2011 4
Do you see China forcing S.Korea to buy their rice, threatening S.Korea with trade sanctions if S.Korea doesn't?
10:53 pm on February 16th, 2011 5
The Chinese dumped many products with melamine on the Korean consumers. Not even one protest came from it.
11:01 pm on February 16th, 2011 6
#4 You see, there's a big difference. THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE COWS. It was a LIE. Get it? Someone invented and pushed for the ban. Someone in Korea. Get it? Who, one must wonder? It's quite easy to figure out the who and the why. Put your thinking cap on.
11:20 pm on February 16th, 2011 7
It was not a lie. The US cows were found to be infected with Mad Cow. That was not a lie.
The one who is lieing is you. 
11:23 pm on February 16th, 2011 8
#5, once again, Chinese government did not threaten Korea with trade sanctions if S.Korea didn't buy melemine laced products from China – like the US threatened S.Korea with trade sanctions if S.Korea didn't buy crazy angry cows from the US. A big difference there.
11:34 pm on February 16th, 2011 9
"And there are smelters in Canada and United States too, so what’s your point?"
I never said there aren't. Fact is, in the US and Canada, soil contaminated by smelters is well mapped out. In South Korea, the only study I heard of involved studying heavy metal soil contamination near closed mines. The researchers were limited to an 8km radius…Yes, only 8 effing km. Otherwise, when soil is found to be contaminated, blame always falls on China (convenient, isn't it?). Fact is, locating smelters along the eastern shore of South Korea does little to prevent soil contamination as the wind blows inland.
If a single smelter located in Northern New Brunswick in Canada is responsible for contaminating an area half the size of South Korea, just imagine what's going on in South Korea.
11:53 pm on February 16th, 2011 10
"Do you see China forcing S.Korea to buy their rice, threatening S.Korea with trade sanctions if S.Korea doesn’t?"
Are you sure you're Korean? They did over garlic.
12:49 am on February 17th, 2011 11
President Set Against Broadcasters
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Lee Myung-bak government has been bruised and battered by public anger over its decision to resume U.S. beef imports, and major television stations, MBC, and even state-run KBS, were happy to guide the assault.
Now, with the candlelight protests becoming a fading fad and the idea of American beef on the dinner table sinking in as a reality for local consumers, the government seems to be getting bolder in what is shaping up as a war against the broadcast media.
In a controversial decision late Wednesday, the Korea Communications Standards Commission ordered the creators of “PD Notebook," a popular MBC news program, to air an public apology over what the media arbitration body ruled as false information in its reports on mad cow disease.
The commission also issued a warning to “News 9," the 9 o'clock news program of KBS, over four separate reports between May 21 and June 11 that accused the government of pressuring television broadcasters through audits.
The ruling on PD Notebook is considered the severest penalty for a television news program since SBS was ordered to air an apology for flawed reporting on its “News 8" program in 2006.
The ruling was made after the three commission members named by opposing political parties left the meeting room to protest what they called the flawed decision-making process of the arbitration body.
“Instead of holding an open and real debate about the penalties, the commission's general meeting is turning into a place where a ruling made by the lower committee is approved and passed," said Baek Mi-sook, one of the commission members who left early.
KBS refused to accept the verdict and will demand a review.
MBC and KBS, the country's two largest television stations, had been up in arms against the Lee administration from the start, accusing it of pushing for the privatization of television stations. And the public concern over U.S. beef imports gave them more than enough ammunition.
President Lee, who finds his biggest support in conservative newspapers, including the “Big Three" of Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, seems to believe he could ill afford to back down from the power struggle, having already seen his young presidency rattled by an onslaught from the broadcast media.
Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korean Communications Commission and one of Lee's closest confidents, has been openly calling for the head of KBS President Jung Yun-joo.
And Choi's naming of Koo Bong-hong, Lee's media adviser during the presidential campaign, as YTN president, a 24-hour news channel, triggered anger from media unionists accusing the government of trying to strengthen its grip on television stations.
Koo was named YTN president in the company's shareholder's meeting Thursday, a decision made in 30 seconds as the management hired bodyguards to block unionists from entering the meeting.
In its editions on April 29 and May 13, PD Notebook urged policymakers to take a harder look on the health concerns over U.S. beef, basically claiming that meat from older cattle is more likely to be susceptible to mad cow disease.
However, critics have accused PD Notebook of being too overzealous in getting its message across and manipulating the facts to inflate concerns over mad cow disease. On its April 29 edition, it presented the story of an American woman, Aretha Vinson, who was described as dying from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCDJ), or the human form of mad cow disease.
In the aired interview, Vinson's mother says her daughter “could possibly have" contracted vCDJ, but the Korean subtitles were translated as “the disease that my daughter had."
The arbitrators also accused PD Notebook of unbalanced reporting, saying it only aired interviews of American consumer advocates and representatives of the Humane Society, a fierce critic of the U.S. government over its policies in controlling mad cow disease, and failed to represent opposing opinions.
The PD Notebook reports ignited an explosive response from the general public, especially bloggers on the Internet, who used the material to rally people for the anti-government protests. The consequences proved dire for President Lee, who saw his approval rate drop to the high teens at record speed.
“We admit there were some mistakes and flaws in the PD Notebook reports, but it's hard to be convinced that they warrant such severe punishment," said a representative of MBC's labor union.
“It's questionable whether the commission should still be considered an independent body when they pushed ahead to punish MBC even without the presence of three members," he said.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
5:22 am on February 17th, 2011 12
I think we all know (except for TOM) PD Notebook and others that incited the protest against US beef import were all playing a political game to hurt/topple the new MB administration that was not so willing to whatever NK demanded. They didn't like the MB administration being not giving into NK.
As a SK Province governor recently said, the MB administration will be replaced in 5 years. And yet these agitators (PD Notebook and etc) got the protest going within the 1st 100 days of MB administration. And meanwhile the same guys have not much bad things to say about the Kim dynasty (you know like dictators) that's been ruling NK for 60+ years.
END of story.
5:23 am on February 17th, 2011 13
#12
correction, MB administration has 5 year term.
7:06 am on February 17th, 2011 14
Tom believes everything the Korean media puts out.
1:00 pm on February 17th, 2011 15
The only ones lieing are the white supremists at ROK Drop.
This is your own media talking.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/asia/11be…
And no, harmless Chinese garlic is no comparison to dangerous US beef that Americans tried to ram down on Korean consumers who had the right to question the safety of US beef.
1:08 pm on February 17th, 2011 16
@15: Exactly how were Korean consumers being forced to buy and eat American beef? Was whitey over there holding them down, taking their won and jamming it in their mouths? Or, were Korean consumers making their own free choices to buy and eat it?
1:27 pm on February 17th, 2011 17
#16, you got it.
1:32 pm on February 17th, 2011 18
"Otherwise, when soil is found to be contaminated, blame always falls on China (convenient, isn’t it?)"
This article was by "AFP". That's not a Korean media. It's white man's media again, writing yet another negative article on China. It's like they have nothing good to say about Asian countries. It's always negative accusatory news backed up by nothing and fueled by economic jealousy. You blaming this on Korea is a hardy har har, Teadrinker.
2:38 pm on February 17th, 2011 19
Tom – You know China thinks of you as colonials who will one day be bought back under their rule, right? It's has already begun in the Cháoxiān SAR.
It sounds like you, for one, welcome your new insect overlords.
4:50 pm on February 17th, 2011 20
All moot point for American power. EU has overwhelmingly passed the Korea-EU FTA by four to one vote. No one will buy American beef or products in Korea when they're fifty percent more expensive then EU products. It looks like Korea's trade surplus with the United States will go up by another big notch.
6:30 pm on February 17th, 2011 21
Not really a moot point for Korean sovereignty though, is it? Do you really hate white men so much that you'd sacrifice Korea's right to self determination just to be rid of them? By all reports life is pretty miserable for the ethnic Koreans under the CPC sanctioned 北朝鮮 regime.
6:54 pm on February 17th, 2011 22
"The only ones lieing are the white supremists at ROK Drop.
This is your own media talking."
I'm neither white nor American, so…
As for the garlic…Didn't you notice that the article above is specifically about the safety of Chinese rice and broadly about the safety of Chinese agricultural products in general? Oh, right. You can't read between the lines.
6:55 pm on February 17th, 2011 23
"No one will buy American beef or products in Korea when they’re fifty percent more expensive then EU products."
You've obviously never been to Europe.
10:28 pm on February 17th, 2011 24
"I’m neither white nor American, so…"
I say BS on this. If you're not white, then what are you? You sound exactly like the white supremist that you are.
10:50 pm on February 17th, 2011 25
Silly Tom…
If anything, Teadrinker would be an Aboriginal Canadian supremest… which is "neither white nor American".
…although, perhaps, you are right and he simply intuitively recognizes the glorious superiority of the United States and its population of racially-pure supreme beings with their lily-white skin.
11:58 pm on February 17th, 2011 26
Teadrinker has been "profiled" by TOM as "white American supremest" because of the words he types.
I find that interesting on so many levels.
12:11 am on February 18th, 2011 27
Who cares about Tommy. Come on America! Keep buying your cheap Chinese crap!
8:10 am on February 18th, 2011 28
Sorry Tom – Whitey was shoving meat down your throat — but it wasn't cow.
You need to stop hanging out at Starbutts in Itaewon.
9:17 am on February 18th, 2011 29
"If anything, Teadrinker would be an Aboriginal Canadian supremest… which is “neither white nor American”."
That explains it, alcoholic crime prone and illiterate, living in gambling reserves. At least Koreans have a country, what do the Indians have? The Indian reserves. They are so much better.
10:16 am on February 18th, 2011 30
Tom, a disturbed Korean college kid living with whities. Pattern sounds familiar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7-2ura5Nbs
11:46 am on February 18th, 2011 31
#30, tell us all something we don't know about Tom. Tom has obviously been the odd person out in life, that is why his post's read like they do.
12:08 pm on February 18th, 2011 32
"This article was by “AFP”. That’s not a Korean media. It’s white man’s media again, writing yet another negative article on China."
I wasn't referring to that article.
"That explains it, alcoholic crime prone and illiterate, living in gambling reserves. At least Koreans have a country, what do the Indians have? The Indian reserves. They are so much better."
You truly are an ugly little troll.
Illiterate? "Supremist" isn't a word.