FDA detains all dairy-based imports from China

Believe it or not, the FDA has finally issued an alert that will detain all Chinese products containing milk at the border, not allowing them to enter the country and go to market until they can be tested for traces of the toxic chemical melamine.

Well, it's about time.

Remember, last September more than 50,000 infants in China were sickened by melamine-tainted milk - and four of them died. "We're taking this action because it's the right thing to do for the public health," said the FDA's deputy associate commissioner Dr. Steven Solomon.

Of course it is. It was the "right thing to do for the public health" last year, too, when the reports of toxic toys, deadly toothpaste, and corrupted pharmaceuticals first began to surface.

Why now? What makes tainted milk more worthy of detention at the border than, say, the tainted blood thinner heparin, which was associated with the deaths of 81 Americans last summer?

I'm not the only one who thinks that the FDA is a bit late to the party on this issue. Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of the consumer watchdog agency Food & Water Watch, says the new detention and testing system "does not do enough to ensure consumer safety, especially since melamine contamination in Chinese products continues to broaden."

And Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D - Conn.) actually believes that the FDA's action to ban an entire category of food indicates "the problems involving melamine in China are significantly deeper than the FDA would have us believe."

But I'm a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due, so I'm not about to come down too hard on the FDA when I've been calling for action for so long. .

Will the ban be enough? Benjamin England, a former FDA attorney who now works for food supply companies, seems to think so. He things the ban will "jam the ports all the way up the supply chain." Once a product is placed on an FDA alert list, England says "it's impossible" to get off.

I hope that what England says is true, and that more Chinese-made goods are put on the same kinds of alert lists as soon as possible.

Dallas hospital bans outdoor smoking

First it was restaurants and bars. Then it was outside restaurants and bars. Now, a Dallas hospital has effectively closed off its entire campus to smoking.

Parkland Health & Hospital System recently announced that all of its locations will be 100 percent smoke free - even the areas of the property that are not indoors. The new ban makes smoking forbidden in the hospital parking lots, on the hospital sidewalks, and in all exterior areas that surround the hospital building. You'll need to be in your car or across the street if you want to light up.

The hospital claims that it's "promoting healthy environments," of course - that's the usual "protect the people" nonsense you always hear whenever someone's snatching your personal freedom from you.