The NY times has a report this morning about China exporting diethylene
glycol marked as 99.5% glycerine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
or http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/05/news/06poison.php

The "glycerine" is mixed into cough syrups and other liquid
pharmaceuticals, and when ingested ...

"The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to
misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often
impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die."

This substitution has been made as early as the 1930s, when poisonings
from diethylene glycol prompted the formation of the FDA. More
recently, mass poisonings with fatalities in the hundreds to many thousands
have resulted in China, Panama, Bangladesh, India, Haiti, Argentina, and
Nigeria. Nobody has been prosecuted because the manufacturers are not
licensed to sell pharma-grade product, and do not claim that the
product is pharma-grade ... only 99.5% pure. Thus, no laws have been broken.

This is one of the scariest, unbelievable pieces I've come across in a
long time. And not to be complacent, the diethylene glycol came very
close to making it into U.S. product.

You owe it to yourself to read this entire article, if you want to be
informed of the utter ineptitude, ignorance, and deception at all levels
of marketing and regulation - starting from a small production shop in
China, all the way to the FDA and agencies in other countries. And what
is so disturbing, is that nobody seems to be able to put a stop to
these practices.

A few days ago, a question to a person from an herb & supplement
company about vitamins, revealed that a very large proportion of vitamins are
now manufactured in China. It seems prudent for everyone's safety, to
make careful inquiries about the source of products being purchased,
and the source of materials in that product. Start letting every
supplier of goods know that you are concerned.

An ordinary bottle of over-the-counter cough syrup could kill you.
What if you had been traveling in Panama last year and needed some? And
the cough syrup was manufactured by the Panamanian government, not
knowing the supposed "glycerin" going into it was actually diethylene
glycol, and totally unaware where the stuff really came from!!