Four infants in China have died and at least 53,000 are reportedly ill, many seriously so, having been fed milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. A three-year old girl in Hong Kong is also ill, but has now been released from hospital, she was the first reported case outside mainland China. Major formula milk producer Nestle says none of its products in China has been contaminated with melamine, although the Hong Kong government says it has found the contaminant in the company’s milk formula.
I guess it’s no surprise that this scandal has emerged after, rather than before or during, the Olympic Games, but that is not something that would be peculiar to China. Governments the world over try to manage bad news and China certainly does not have a monopoly on cover-ups. If melamine is the primary contaminant, then regardless of claims that other compounds may be present, long-term use (six months or so) would be enough for this toxic compound to accumulate in an infant and lead to toxic effects such as kidney stones. The LD50, or acute toxic dose is not entirely relevant if an infant is being fed contaminated milk day after day. Incidentally, LD50 is a measurement per kilogram of body mass, so it is not higher for people than it is for rats, although it may be different because of differences in our body’s biochemistry.
Some info on recalls of products containing melamine:
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/me...-food-list.html--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 2, 2008
Melamine Contaminated Food ListPosted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 2 Comments; add your comment
Before you check out the following items, please click here first to grab the Sciencebase newsfeed, I’ll be updating the melamine news over the coming days. The RSS newsfeed system allows you to keep up to date with a website, without having to check back.
As this problem continues to roll along, here is a melamine contaminated food list plucked from the latest news results on the subject:
Powdered baby milk.
HK finds melamine in Chinese-made cheesecake.
Cookies With Melamine Found in Netherlands.
Mr Brown coffee products.
Manufacturing giant Unilever recalls melamine tainted tea.
Melamine Detected in Two More Ritz Snacks.
More Chinese-made sweets recalled in Japan.
White Rabbit brand Chinese candy contaminated: Asian health officials.
Lipton, Glico and Ritz the latest businesses to be affected by milk powder scandal.
Hong Kong finds traces of melamine in Cadbury products.
Recalled Melamine Milk Products include Asian versions of Bairong grape cream crackers, Dove chocolate, Dreyers cake mix, Dutch Lady candy, First Choice crackers, Kraft Oreo wafer sticks, M&Ms, Magnum ice cream, Mentos bottle yoghurt, Snickers funsize, Yili hi-cal milk, Youcan sesame snacks and others. Testing of some of those has already proven negative.
Melamine Found in More China-Made Products, including Heinz DHA+AA baby cereal.
305 Chinese dairy-based products temporarily banned in Korea.
US bloggers have gone so far as to uncover dozens of products recalled in China that were still on the shelves of their local supermarkets.
31 new milk powder brands found tainted.
It is a little bit scary, but if you ask me, it's good news really. Reminds us to be on the look out and become more aware of what we put into our bodies...