You want cheap goods, don’t you?

The next time you go to Wal-Mart or Costco or any of those places that have cheap prices, remember this story. This is the direct result of the never-ending search for cheap goods. We are importing pet food that kills our pets and now toothpaste that also kills.

After a drug ingredient from China killed dozens of Haitian children a decade ago, a senior American health official sent a cable to her investigators: Find out who made the poisonous ingredient and why a state-owned company in China exported it as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin.

The Chinese were of little help. Requests to find the manufacturer were ignored. Business records were withheld or destroyed.