Being a bit of a misanthrope myself, and very much a treehugger, and knowing what little I do about China’s population problems, I can see where “there are always more people, but the plan must be met” might work. I’ve got a real problem with going so far as to actually put that thought into practice, whether by actively killing people, or just passively letting them die when they don’t have to.

The difference in cost is minimal, Hipparchia, and if bio-diesel gets rolling there will be a glut of glycerin, as it is a by product of the process, as well as a by product of making soap. The real problem seems to be that there are no standards on what the Chinese are doing, and the most recent head of the Chinese version of the FDA was just sentenced to death for corruption.

The root cause is that old Communist attitude of fulfill the goals without regard for the costs. There were always more people, but the plan must be met.

Telling people which words [chemical names] to look out for, in addition to listing just brand names, is good, because we may not yet have identified all the brands that contain this chemical. I’ve got one problem with that, though. The first reports that I read said that ethylene glycol was being surreptitiously substituted for glycerin, which suggests that maybe we ought to be throwing away all our toothpaste [and any other product] that says “glycerin” on the label.