China crackdown on drugmakers' pollution

China's pharmaceutical manufacturing plants face more rigorous controls on waste disposal after the introduction of the country's first pollution standards tailored for the industry, Reuters reports.

One of the recent spate of food safety concerns in the USA involved the problem of contaminated sea-food from China, where antibiotics that are not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration are used to counter the effects of rearing fish in polluted waters. Phyllis Schlafly, a US conservative commentator, recently quoted the FDA's estimate that a quarter of the shrimp imported into the USA from China are affected. In addition, 51 shipments of Chinese catfish, eel, shrimp and tilapia were rejected by the US authorities because of the presence of salmonella, veterinary drugs and the chemical nitrofuran, a carcinogen.

China's State Environmental Protection Administration has completed a two-month campaign to clean up China's rivers and is now targeting individual factories, the China Daily claimed. In addition, 649 firms have been either closed down or have been forced to suspend operations. The Chinese authorities have also come under pressure following international concerns about pollution, highlighted during ceremonies to mark one year to go before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.