40% tea found to be substandard

In the News: (Shenzhen Daily) In-Flight English edition. (Shenzhen airlines en route to WuXi)
Much is published of late on the efforts in China to improve “food” quality.
On Wed. Aug 8th. This article was published in the:
Shenzhen Daily http://www.sznews.com/ http://paper.sznews.com/szdaily/

MORE than two out of five of 80 batches of tea inspected by the city’s industrial and commercial administration were found to contain excessive amounts of fluoride, yesterday’s Shenzhen Evening News reported.
The result came after a survey of 32 wholesale markets, companies, supermarkets and shopping malls in Shenzhen between April and June, the News reported. Among the 80 batches inspected, 47 were found to be up to standard while the remaining 33 were found to contain potentially harmful levels of fluoride.
Experts say the ecological environment of tea gardens, use of fertilizers, breed of tea trees and the amount of old leaves in the tea all play a part in determining the levels of fluoride accumulated in the leaves. Long-term intake of fluoride-contaminated tea could lead to dental fluorosis (mottled teeth), the first visible sign of fluoride poisoning, and bone disorders, according to experts.
Impurities were also found in the tea inspected, the News report said.
Tea labeled without specifying the guarantee period, date of manufacture, product type and list of ingredients was the other conspicuous problem found during the survey, the report said. Up to 68 out of the 80 batches inspected bore labels which were not up to standard.
Officials with the municipal administration for industry and commerce have vowed a crackdown to remove substandard tea from the market and penalize traders found selling it. They also warned consumers against believing that the longer tea leaves are kept, the better they will taste, as claimed by tea traders. (Eunice Kang)

On a lighter note, this article in same paper .. apologies to those Oxford supporters.2007年08月08日 00:44 Shenzhen Daily
Cambridge has beat its historic rival* Oxford to become Britain’s top university, according to a guide published last week.
The Good University Guide graded a total of 113 academic* institutions on the basis of nine factors*, including exam results, research strength and student satisfaction.
Cambridge squeezed* Oxford into second place for the first time since 2001, followed by Imperial College, London and the London School of Economics (LSE) in third and fourth places. St Andrews in Scotland came fifth.
The guide’s author Bernard Kingston defended himself against critics who say such rankings are too simple, arguing that students need help in making life-determining choices about where to study.
The argument focused on the ability of the compiler* to decide what the criteria* should be for judging the strength of universities, Kingston said.
The factors taken into account were: exam results, student satisfaction, research record, student-staff ratio*, entry standards, graduate prospects, dropout rates, spending on academic services and funding for other facilities.
Cambridge and Oxford, Britain’s oldest universities and among the world’s most prestigious* academic institutions, have long been friendly rivals over which is the top place to study.
Oxford is slightly older than Cambridge, but they share a traditional college structure and both have a reputation for producing the country’s political, economic and cultural leaders.
While “Oxbridge” remains on top, at the bottom end of the list are many of the former polytechnics* which were allowed to change their name and transform themselves into universities during the 1990s.