China finds more milk tainted with deadly chemical!

China finds more milk tainted with deadly chemical!

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BEIJING — Chinese officials have found 76 tons of milk powder and dairy products laced with a deadly industrial chemical in at least three provinces that was apparently left over from a milk scandal in 2008 that killed six babies and sickened hundreds of thousands.

The discovery shows that toxic milk remains a danger in China despite a crackdown in which dozens of people were arrested and two — a dairy farmer and a milk salesmen — were executed for producing or selling toxic milk.

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Wow it seems that these companies that are producing this milk powder for baby formula are still at it. Using melamine as a filler I guess is cheaper than using real milk. Perhaps this shows that it is getting tougher for at least these factories to produce their product for the money they are getting in return. Just a guess.

In case anyone forgot what melamine really is...here ya go.

Toxicity

Melamine is described as being "Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.” However, the short-term lethal dose is on a par with common table salt with an LD50 of more than 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight.[12] U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists explained that when melamine and cyanuric acid are absorbed into the bloodstream, they concentrate and interact in the urine-filled renal microtubules, then crystallize and form large numbers of round, yellow crystals, which in turn block and damage the renal cells that line the tubes, causing the kidneys to malfunction.[13]

The European Union set a standard for acceptable human consumption (Tolerable Daily Intake) of melamine at 0.5 milligrams per kg of body mass (reduced to 0.2 mg per kg in April 2010)[14], Canada declared a limit of 0.35 mg and the US FDA’s limit was put at 0.63 mg, but was later reduced to 0.063 mg daily. The World Health Organization’s food safety director estimated that the amount of melamine a person could stand per day without incurring a bigger health risk, the "tolerable daily intake" (TDI), was 0.2 mg per kg of body mass.
en.wikipedia.org...


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reply to post by CaptGizmo



I read this earlier as well. I'm starting to think that it's more along the lines of bad management of materials and work related processing. Using many of the same equipment and shipping containers for various types of production and the result was cross contamination.

Still bad if you ask me. This reminds me of a stink that happened in the US a while back where some truckers would haul food to markets and haul garbage and refuse on their return trips never cleaning out the trailers between pick up and deliveries.

Can you tell me why government agencies establish lines, for toxic products, like: "You can take internally 0.xxx mg per day.." If it is toxic, what is the validity of putting some in food, to begin with.

No one can say "0.00?"...

Glad the Chinese could find this before it found its way onto the market.

Reminds me of the peanut plant in Georgia too. But frankly, I avoid Chinese stuff as if it contained plague because it wouldn't surprise me a bit if one day it did. Glad they "found" it though. Maybe this means they're paying more attention. Maybe.

[edit on 7/9/2010 by ~Lucidity]

reply to post by ~Lucidity

Yea I think they are paying attention a lot more as well. I think they know they ae under scrutiny because of all the contamination problems with this in the past and with many other products. It could be part of growing pains for a country that has turned to mass producing on the scale they have in recent years. I hope they continue to watch for this stuff more. We will probably see something like an EPA in China soon for this.By the people for the Government after all.

reply to post by CaptGizmo


Thanks for posting this! I think this is chemical warfare, and once this Melamine gets into the food chain, it poisons all. They have even found organic feed in France with Melanine!

S&F!

Seems like almost everything is made in China nowadays. The FDA only inspects 1% of all imported products from China. About 50% if all imported seafood from China doesn't pass FDA standards. I always check food labels, and buy US made products, even though many ingredients still come from China.

Well, reading the punishment the perpetrators received, I think the other people will get the idea.

They were executed. I could think of a few corporate heads that deserve that. How about the ones caught doing cost analysis on whether they should fix the problem that was causing deaths or take the risk of getting caught and paying off the families.