So apparently fish is the newest food stuff to become the focus of a melamine scare, and an "insider" source has told the Shanghai Evening News that adding melamine to animal feed has been common practice for the last five years, meaning that we could be looking at something of an epidemic if other live stock are found to have similar levels of the chemical.
Shanghai is to "carry out full-scale checks on feed used in the fisheries industry," said the Shanghai Daily. The fear is that melamine, the chemical that is to blame for all the kidney-stone related milk powder cases, could "spread to seafood". Although the use of the word "spread" is slightly misleading, as it implies a degree of contagiousness. If melamine is found in fish, it won't have spread, it'll just have been discovered.
Last week eggs were found to contain melamine as well, and it's thought to have been fed to the chickens in a feed-additive in order to boost protein readings without the annoyance and hassle that would come with actually boosting protein levels.
Shanghai Daily: City fish food checked for melamine content
Shanghaiist
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Showing posts with label shanghai daily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shanghai daily. Show all posts
Friday, 31 October 2008
Saturday, 18 October 2008
The quietest newsroom in the world
I started an internship at the Shanghai Daily this week - one of the reasons I haven't posted in a while - and I've spent the time since desperately trying to find some form of work that I can do other than rocking back and forth in a chair...
But I suppose for a first week it's not been too uneventful, it doesn't help that they have no real idea what to do with interns though. When I arrived on Tuesday I was shown a desk, a computer, how the server worked, and then left to it. To what, at that point, neither I nor the Shanghai Daily knew, I think they were just happy to get me to sit down and not bother them for a minute.
That didn't last long and I managed to work my way round the metro (city news) desk reporters in about 15 minutes, pleasantly whoring myself out for any work that was going at all. There wasn't anything.
I suppose it would be useful to describe the newsroom at the Shanghai Daily: it looks like a newsroom, but it doesn't sound like a newsroom. The general hustling, shouting, swearing and stressing is nowhere and is replaced by an eerie subdued murmur. I can actually hear the news on TV from the other side of the room.
I think this comes from the fact the Shanghai Daily's metro desk tends to do a lot of rehashing stories from the Chinese media and not so much reporting of its own, meaning reporters don't need to leave the office much, and just make a couple of calls to verify a story.
Despite that, I have huge amount of respect for them, writing news in a foreign language (especially if, like many of the reporters, you've never been to an English speaking country) is a pretty hard task.
That said, On Thursday I finally got something to do and teamed up with a young reporter who just graduated from university this year. We went and covered a seminar where an Australian public health academic was talking about tobacco control in Australia, and I think was supposed to become a discussion between him and the Chinese academics there about cooperation between the two countries. Well, the language barrier hit home a bit and it descended into a discussion between the Chinese academics for a good couple of hours, but it was interesting. They called for the media to take a more active role in reporting findings about tobacco control so as to pressure the government into taking a more active approach to tightening regulations or even introducing laws in the area.
So I got to write a couple of hundred words at least, which was better than nothing. Friday was a pretty uneventful day though, so we'll see what happens next week.
Links
Media aid needed in smoke-out campaign
Keep on reading...
But I suppose for a first week it's not been too uneventful, it doesn't help that they have no real idea what to do with interns though. When I arrived on Tuesday I was shown a desk, a computer, how the server worked, and then left to it. To what, at that point, neither I nor the Shanghai Daily knew, I think they were just happy to get me to sit down and not bother them for a minute.
That didn't last long and I managed to work my way round the metro (city news) desk reporters in about 15 minutes, pleasantly whoring myself out for any work that was going at all. There wasn't anything.
I suppose it would be useful to describe the newsroom at the Shanghai Daily: it looks like a newsroom, but it doesn't sound like a newsroom. The general hustling, shouting, swearing and stressing is nowhere and is replaced by an eerie subdued murmur. I can actually hear the news on TV from the other side of the room.
I think this comes from the fact the Shanghai Daily's metro desk tends to do a lot of rehashing stories from the Chinese media and not so much reporting of its own, meaning reporters don't need to leave the office much, and just make a couple of calls to verify a story.
Despite that, I have huge amount of respect for them, writing news in a foreign language (especially if, like many of the reporters, you've never been to an English speaking country) is a pretty hard task.
That said, On Thursday I finally got something to do and teamed up with a young reporter who just graduated from university this year. We went and covered a seminar where an Australian public health academic was talking about tobacco control in Australia, and I think was supposed to become a discussion between him and the Chinese academics there about cooperation between the two countries. Well, the language barrier hit home a bit and it descended into a discussion between the Chinese academics for a good couple of hours, but it was interesting. They called for the media to take a more active role in reporting findings about tobacco control so as to pressure the government into taking a more active approach to tightening regulations or even introducing laws in the area.
So I got to write a couple of hundred words at least, which was better than nothing. Friday was a pretty uneventful day though, so we'll see what happens next week.
Links
Media aid needed in smoke-out campaign
Keep on reading...
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Whitewashed: Milk problems spread worldwide
According to reports by the Guardian today, supermarket chain Tesco has been recalling Chinese imported dairy products, mainly milk sweets, as the Sanlu melamine scare keeps on spreading.
The Associated Press are also reporting that twelve countries have banned Chinese dairy imports in the aftermath of the scandal.
The story's been bumped slightly from the headlines in China today after dominating them for over a week, with China's imminent launch of 神舟七号 (Shenzhou VII), the Chinese spacecraft manned by three "talkonauts" that will attempt China's first spacewalk.
The People's Daily are running a series of stories on it, as well as Wen Jiabao's speech on China's post-Olympic economic development. He describes that 2008 was no ordinary year for China, with both the Sichuan earthquake and the Olympics and that both these events saw Chinese people display bravery and strength, as well as increasing people's understanding of China. He goes on to say that China must now "resolutely open up to reforms and develop harmony".
The Sanlu scandal isn't completely bumped, the Shanghai Daily are reporting the city's attempts to gain control of all possibly tainted dairy products, dispatching teams to towns and villages in Anhui and other surrounding regions to recall batches of Shanghai Baoanli and Shanghai Panda products.
Keep on reading...
The Associated Press are also reporting that twelve countries have banned Chinese dairy imports in the aftermath of the scandal.
The story's been bumped slightly from the headlines in China today after dominating them for over a week, with China's imminent launch of 神舟七号 (Shenzhou VII), the Chinese spacecraft manned by three "talkonauts" that will attempt China's first spacewalk.
The People's Daily are running a series of stories on it, as well as Wen Jiabao's speech on China's post-Olympic economic development. He describes that 2008 was no ordinary year for China, with both the Sichuan earthquake and the Olympics and that both these events saw Chinese people display bravery and strength, as well as increasing people's understanding of China. He goes on to say that China must now "resolutely open up to reforms and develop harmony".
The Sanlu scandal isn't completely bumped, the Shanghai Daily are reporting the city's attempts to gain control of all possibly tainted dairy products, dispatching teams to towns and villages in Anhui and other surrounding regions to recall batches of Shanghai Baoanli and Shanghai Panda products.
Keep on reading...
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