== This is what can happen when you want to pay the cheapest price on everything..

Some people are paying with their lives..

Chinese tires recalled

Defective truck tires could come apart and cause a crash, according to safety regulators. 450,000 tires involved.

450,000 tires involved.

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
June 26 2007

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/26/autos/tire_recall/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered a recall of 450,000 light truck tires that could have an increased risk of tread separation.

No recall is actually taking place yet, however, because the company that imported the tires claims, in documents filed with NHTSA, that it simply can't afford the expense. The company has appealed to NHTSA for help.

The tires, made by China-based Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., have an insufficient or missing gum strip, a rubber feature that helps prevent steel belts inside the tire from separating or from damaging the rubber.

"If you have gum strip missing, eventually the bond between the steel belts and rubber components will weaken and break," said John Rastetter, director of tire information for TireRack.com, an on-line tire retailer. TireRack.com does not sell any of the tires involved in the recall.

Without the gum strip steel bands could also cut into the rubber tire, causing damage, Rastetter said.

The tires involved in the recall are intended for use on larger light trucks such as heavy-duty pick-ups, large vans and ambulances. They are sold in the United States under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS.

The tires were initially imported by Foreign Tire Sales (FTS) of Union, NJ under an exclusive contract. Later, however, the Chinese manufacturer began selling the tires to several other U.S. importers, according to documents submitted to NHTSA by FTS.

Calls to FTS were referred to the company's attorney, who has not responded.

Hangzhou Zhongce told the Wall Street Journal that, in its own testing, it has not found the alleged defects.

FTS contracted with Hangzhou Zhongce to make the tires beginning in 2000 or 2001. Initially, the tires included the 0.6 mm gum strip, as required by the tire's design. According to documents filed with NHTSA,

FTS began to suspect problems with the tires as early as 2005 as warranty claims began to rise.

A 2006 ambulance crash prompted FTS to hire an outside lab to test several sample tires, according to documents. Those tests revealed that tires were being manufactured without the gum strip or with a gum strip that was too narrow.

Other tests, performed in March, 2007, showed that the tire treads began coming apart at about 25,000 miles, according to documents.

In August, 2006, two men riding in a Chevrolet van died when the van rolled over after the tire tread separated, according to an announcement released by an attorney representing the men's families and Safety Research and Strategies, an auto safety research group. Another man in the van suffered permanent brain injury. The van was riding on a Compass Telluride tires made by Hangzhou Zhongce in 2004, according to the announcement.

FTS says it does not know how many tires, in total, were imported into the United States through other importers.

NHTSA is also contacting other companies that have imported these tires to alert them to the problem.

In 2000 and 2001, Firestone had to recall almost 20 million tires because of a manufacturing defect that resulted in the tread separating the from the tire. It occurred when the tire was used while under-inflated after the vehicle had been driven at high speeds on a hot road surface. That defect was blamed for more than 100 deaths.

In the case of the Hangzhou Zhongce tires, the vehicle would not have to be driven at high speeds or on a hot road surface in order for problems to occur, said Rastetter. Simply driving on the tires could eventually cause the tire to fail. Heat and underinflation could also aggregate the problems with these tires, he added.

Hangzhou Zhongce also manufactured medium duty truck tires and passenger car tires for Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. over several years ending last year. The Chinese company made only a very small percentage of the approximately 40 million tires Cooper sells annually in the U.S., said Pat Brown, a spokeswoman for Cooper. Those tires were made according to designs supplied by Cooper, she said, and the company regularly checked the tires being imported for compliance.

Those tires do not resemble the ones being recalled and were made according to designs supplied by Cooper, said Brown.

Neither Bridgestone, which also makes Firestone and Dayton tires, nor Michelin, which also makes BF Goodrich tires, has ever worked with Hangzhou Zhongce, according to officials for those companies.

The tires involved in the recall are the following sizes:

• LT235/75R-15
• LT235/75R-16
• LT235/85R-16
• LT245/75R-16
• LT265/75R-16
• LT3X10.5-15 

 

 

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Tire recalled in U.S. still sold in Canada

Truck radials manufactured in China can't be ordered off shelves until company issues a notice of defect

Agency has no power to seize items but fears over Chinese imports could change that

2007 07 02

Iain Marlow
Staff Reporter
The Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/231583

RCMP Superintendent Ken Hansen gave his boss a pack of batteries last summer as an example of Chinese counterfeit merchandise arriving at Canadian ports. They made quite an impression months later – when they exploded.

The senior RCMP official thought a gun had gone off in the office. Luckily for Hansen, the batteries blew up in his superior's desk drawer.

"It was quite an explosion," Hansen said. "If you were holding it in your hand you probably would have lost some fingers."

The batteries, disguised as a Western brand, lacked a near-invisible vent that allows pressure to escape. In 2006, when RCMP officials seized more than four tons of fake, dangerous batteries, Health Canada issued a warning: since 2000, they have received 86 complaints of overheating or leaky batteries and eight children suffered burns.

The Canada Border Services Agency has, knowingly, let container loads of counterfeit batteries into the country, along with myriad other phony goods, some of which are dangerous. They have neither the budget nor the mandate to stop the deluge of fake products. They search less than three per cent of incoming shipments.

Hansen, who is a co-chair on Interpol's intellectual property crime action group, said the RCMP can investigate only 25 per cent of counterfeit shipments arriving in Toronto that are flagged by the border agency, and only then if they are major safety risks or are linked to international crime.

But growing concern about Chinese imports, especially after the U.S. pet food recall, has led to two committees in the House of Commons that have recently reported on the cost – and risk – of dangerous counterfeits.

On June 21, Health Canada ordered border agents to stop incoming Chinese toothpaste after counterfeit Colgate tubes, possibly containing a poison used in antifreeze, were found in Guelph and Halifax.

Around two thirds of counterfeits that arrive in Canada are from China.

"You used to see T-shirts, purses," Hansen said, noting that in mid-June, in Quebec, the RCMP seized a shipment of fake chainsaws from China. "Ten years ago you wouldn't have seen this."

There have been exploding circuit breakers in Ontario and Quebec hospitals, electrical cords that catch fire after 10 minutes, and fake pharmaceuticals – some of which have been mixed into the supply chain of regular pharmacies, though most get sold on the Internet. Counterfeiters will often combine shipments of fakes: officials once found Louis Vuitton bags stuffed with counterfeit medicine.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority once estimated that 2 per cent of parts installed annually on American airplanes are fake.

It is not illegal under Canada's Customs Act to import counterfeit goods. Border officials do not actively search for them, and will only alert RCMP officials if counterfeits are found during searches for other illegal imports.

Carol Osmond, a lawyer and vice-chair of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, said Canada's border agency lacks a clear legislative mandate to seize counterfeit goods. "There's a recognition even within CBSA that there needs to be change," Osmond said.

Unless Health Canada or the RCMP say counterfeits pose major risks to Canadians, border officials usually let them through.

On the percentage of fake goods coming into Canada that are actually seized, Lorne Lipkus, a lawyer whose firm is devoted to anti-counterfeit enforcement, said, "I'm really comfortable saying it's less than 1 per cent."

Lipkus said Canada's anti-counterfeit measures are more lax than those of many developing countries. He has represented Canada at international conventions on anti-counterfeiting measures and said: "We felt like a third world country. It is very embarrassing."

Kenya, Vietnam and Serbia – even China – have a process Canada lacks, where corporations can register trademarks with border agencies, allowing customs agents to seize and destroy counterfeit shipments.

A parliamentary committee reported on June 20 to the House of Commons on how Canada could improve its dismal performance at the border. Among the committee's recommendations: government should make the importation and distribution of counterfeits a criminal offence; parliament should provide the CBSA with a clear mandate to target counterfeits; and that Health Canada needs more resources to investigate unsafe food and drug imports.

James Rajotte, the Conservative MP who chaired the committee, said it's not just about intellectual property rights, but about health and safety. "CBSA is doing the best job that they can, but they need to have the mandate to target counterfeits," Rajotte told the Star.

Stockwell Day, minister of public safety, told the Star by email that the government "will review the committee's recommendations very carefully and report back to Parliament in a timely manner."

Not all counterfeits arriving in Canada are from China: drugs arrive from India, vodka from Russia, and watches from Italy. Counterfeiters also bounce containers through third-party countries to mislead customs officials in destination countries.

"They're not called organized for nothing," Hansen said.

In May, a report estimated that knock-offs cost the domestic economy $20 billion to $30 billion.

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Some of the phony and often dangerous items flagged at the border and investigated by the RCMP. Canada’s anti-counterfeit measures are more lax than many developing countries, says a lawyer.

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