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- Many counterfeiters target products that are components of larger objects. For example, critical airplane parts require expensive engineering, materials, and manufacturing processes. It’s difficult if not impossible to separate the real deal from the clever counterfeit without laboratory testing, so substandard components can make their way into aircraft.
We don’t know how many people have died from counterfeit part failures, but experts estimate that more than a half million people a year, mostly in the developing world, die because of counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Similarly, bogus fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides have ruined crops in poor nations where malnutrition and associated diseases already pose serious threats.