I received an email today alerting me that I could use bar codes to determine the country in which a product was made. The general idea was to spot the items made in China, even if they weren’t so labelled. Perhaps you have seen something similar. Here is the text of the email I got:

The whole world is scared of China made ‘black hearted goods’. Can you differentiate which one is made in the USA , Philippines , Taiwan or China ? For your Information the first 3 digits of the barcode is the country code wherein the product was made.

All barcodes that start with 690, 691, 692 until 695 are all MADE IN CHINA. 471 is Made in Taiwan

This is our human right to know, but the government and related department never educate the public, therefore we have to RESCUE

Nowadays Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products ‘Made in China’, so they don’t show from which country it is made.

However, you may now refer to the barcode, remember if the first 3 digits is 690-695 then it is Made in China .

BARCODES:
00 ~ 13 USA & Canada
30 ~ 37 France
40 ~ 44 Germany
49 ~ Japan
50 ~ UK
57 ~ Denmark
64 ~ Finland
76 ~ Switzerland and Lichtenstein
628 ~ Saudi-Arabia
629 ~ United Arab Emirates
740 ~ 745 - Central America
All 480 Codes are Made in the Philippines

So is it true? Well according to the Urban Legends (Snopes.com) people, not exactly. First of all, it’s not the bar code that gives you the country information: it’s the EAN or European Article Number. So unless the product you’re looking at buying has an EAN, this whole discussion is moot.

The second problem is that the first two or three digits that represent the country code refer to the country in which the product was registered, not necessarily where it was grown or manufactured. If a product was made in China and then shipped to another country for packaging, then it will not bear the country code for China.

This recalls a problem we have in Canada with items that are labelled “Made in Canada,” as exposed by CBC’s Marketplace in the fall of 2007. Our laws state that as long as a majority of the cost of the product was incurred in Canada, an item can be labelled a product of our country. This includes packaging, and of course advertising expenses. Under this law, food made in China or any other country can be given a “Product of Canada” label as long as the distributor spent most of its money here.

What are we to do? Well, buying local produce is one idea. And how about making our own toys and games, or buying from local artisans and craft sales?

We can also let our shopkeepers know we prefer local products, and tell our governments that laws that allow foreign products to masquerade as made in Canada are no longer acceptable.

The general message of the email rings true: we can’t wait for someone else to tell us what’s safe for our families & what isn’t. It’s up to us to act for change.

Thanks to Dad, who brought this very interesting and timely issue to my attention

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you will know that an acquaintance of mine has leukemia & has been working very hard to find a stem cell donor. He finally did, and he’ll be receiving his transplant in Ottawa today. This lovely piece of text is an excerpt from Emru Townsend’s latest blog entry. It explains how the transplant process works, but it is also a celebration of creation.

First, an explanation for those who haven’t been around the whole time. We talk about bone marrow, but what transplant recipients like me really need are healthy stem cells. Bone marrow contains plenty of the stem cells we need, but times have changed. In 70% of all extraction cases, we get the required stem cells through a process called PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell) extraction. This process is similar to donating blood, except the donor gets change: the blood is extracted through a needle, which takes the blood to an apheresis machine, which separates the stem cells from the rest of the blood. Anything that isn’t needed for the extraction is returned to the donor. As for those remaining extractions, yes, those are actual bone marrow—a spongy red tissue.

Either way, my transplant works the same. Not through any kind of operation, but by pumping the stem cells/marrow through my chest catheter, the same way as I get my blood transfusions, for example. As I understand it marrow transplants take three hours or so (don’t quote me on that); my transplant, which is of stem cells, is 60-80 minutes (two units, 30-40 minutes per unit).

“But wait,” you might ask. “I have been following your posts, and you’ve mentioned that your catheter is a central venous catheter. That is, it goes into your heart to get pumped into the bloodstream. So how do the stem cells get to inside your bones, which is where they’ll generate the new marrow?” Ah, that is the freaky part, the part that medical professionals marvel over but don’t question, because hey, it works. The stem cells know where to go and they just get themselves there.

A moment’s pause for the awesomeness of creation, please.

~ Emru Townsend, “Part of the Process”, Heal Emru Notes

If you would like to take some time today to talk to your children about leukemia and stem cell transplants, there is a free downloadable colouring book available from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My children and I are using it to discuss what Emru has been going through, and what is happening to him during the transplant today. Perhaps you will find it useful too.

Emru had less than a 4% chance of finding a donor through a bone marrow registry when his sister’s bone marrow type was determined not to match his. This is partly due to the lack of awareness about the registry, but also in large part because he is of Caribbean decent. Non-Caucasian populations are not well represented among potential donors. Emru & his family have been working tirelessly for months to get the word out, so that people will realize the importance of stem cell transplant (which is also helpful for people with sickle cell anemia, by the way!)

Because of Emru, his sister Tamu, and wife Vicki, there are a lot of people who got involved to educate the public and a lot of people discovered registering was as easy as filling in a form and giving either a cheek swab or a blood sample. Donating stem cells is not much more complicated than giving blood, and does not put the donor at any risk medically.

I know a lot of homeschooling families like to do community service projects, and this might be an interesting idea for service in your community. Think about putting up some posters or talking to people in your community about registering. I’m sure you can come up with other ideas, too!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

Recommended reading by Emru Townsend, who is approaching his own stem cell transplant date in the near future. This free download is a colouring and activity book for kids that looks at what happens to a pediatric stem cell recipient in the hospital. This would also be an excellent resource for kids who have a family member in need of a stem cell transplant, or for friends and classmates. Or use it as part of a broader discussion on health.

Get your free colouring book from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society here!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!