Did you know that you can no longer purchase sterile gauze pads for post-surgical use that are made in the USA?
I recently had a few spots removed by my dermatologist and stopped at Walgren’s on the way home per her instructions to get some sterile gauze pads. It was not until later that evening when my husband was getting ready to help me change my existing gauze pad that he happened to look at the box and see that they were a product of China!
We didn’t feel good about that so the next day we canvassed Walgren’s and CVS and could not find American made sterile gauze pads. Even Johnson & Johnson (what company “used” to be more American than the maker’s of Johnson’s No More Tears Baby Shampoo??) imports their gauze pads from China. We found we had two choices either imported pads or imported pads that were then sterilized in the US – hmmm, some doubts about sterilization practices in China? Only 3M makes some sterile dressings in the USA but they are for specialized wound care and more than I needed.
There is a serious problem when we are outsourcing the manufacturing of critical medical supplies to China and other countries. My husband has worked in the pharmaceutical construction industry and the construction requirements are extremely stringent and subject to FDA oversight. Off-shore pharmaceutical and medical supply companies are not under the direct regulations imposed by the FDA. We all have heard that the FDA is far than perfect, but I would much rather have the FDA overseeing the manufacturing of medical supplies than have them imported.
I take particular issue with China because it is the country where over 300,000 babies were sickened by milk powder tainted with melamine. As a result, I will not eat any food items that are imported from China. Unfortunately due to the availability of no US manufactured surgical gauze pads, I was forced to use Chinese ones, but was very concerned about their level of sterilization. At the start of this year, I saw yet another article that cited that yet another dairy producer was shut down for producing milk powder contaminated with melamine. When will China institute appropriate and safe food standards? It appears that this was yet another repeat of the 2008 incident.
I do not trust a country to produce surgical sterile gauze pads that poisons its infants. One of the highest risk any hospital patient faces is a hospital acquired infection. Now it appears that the risk may be broadened to a possible infection by critical surgical supplies produced in another country (either sterilized there or in the US).
I find it ironic that as so many of our critical supplies are being manufactured off-shore that the prices do not drop to reflect the appallingly low labor wages of off-shore countries. I do observe that in the case of clothing the price may not increase, but the quality definitely decreases. I am left to wonder if this is also the case with imported medical supplies?
When are we as Americans going to say enough – we want American made goods!
