Millions Of Used Nitrite Gloves, Some Blood Stained, ‘Are Being Re-Dyed Then Shipped To The U.S.’
Tens of millions of dirty and used counterfeit nitrile gloves, some of which are even stained with blood, are being shipped from Thailand to the United States amidst a spike in demand of medical equipment due to COVID-19.
CNN launched an investigation that concluded that companies in Thailand are repackaging used gloves and reselling them worldwide, including the U.S. Thai law enforcement agencies raided warehouses earlier this year belonging to companies who sold reused nitrile gloves abroad. They were horrified to find that workers were using dye to color the used gloves and laundry dryers to dry them after washing.
In February and March, an American company sounded the alarm to Joe Biden’s administration that they had been shipped gloves that were visibly soiled from a company based in Thailand. Though both the Customs and Border Protection and the Food and Drug Administration were given these warnings, the counterfeit shipments continued to be imported into the country as recently as July.
Tarek Kirschen, a businessman, based in Miami, ordered $2million worth of gloves from Paddy the Room, a Thai-based company. He went on to sell these gloves to an American distributor.
“We start getting phone calls from clients completely upset, and you know, yelling and screaming at us saying, ‘Hey, you screwed us,’” he recalled. “These were reused gloves. They were washed, recycled…Some of them were dirty. Some of them had bloodstains. Some of them had markers on them with dates from two years ago… I couldn’t believe my eyes.” – READ MORE
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