More child deaths linked to China’s melamine

Last Updated: Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Associated Press

The death toll in the melamine scandal may be higher than China’s government suggests based on a recent revelation that at least five more children died after drinking infant formula tainted with the industrial chemical.

One of the deaths that may be linked to the scandal occurred in Liti village in Henan province in central China’s wheat and corn flatlands.

Farmer Li Xiaoquan and his wife were the parents of baby twin girls, but tragedy struck just before dawn on Sept. 10 when one of the nine-month-old infants died of kidney failure.

The previous month, an ultrasound examination of baby Xiaokai’s kidneys at the Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital had found a stone in each kidney that was about the size of a small marble and two and a half times larger than what doctors consider a critical threshold.

Li’s family and doctors have never been able to confirm how she got sick.

But just a day after Xiaokai died, state media reported that the type of formula milk the infant used to drink had been tainted with melamine.

Xiaokai, older than her twin, Xiaoyan, by three minutes, was fed formula milk while the younger girl nursed on breast milk because their mother did not have enough for both, family members said.

Li said he first learned of the contamination scandal from a relative who watched the news on television.

Although the cause of his daughter’s death has not been confirmed, the grieving father puts the blame on the baby formula, which was produced by state-owned Sanlu, the diary at the centre of the contaminated milk scandal.

China’s Health Ministry said three infants died from drinking melamine-tainted milk and up to 50,000 were made ill.

Yet the deaths of Xiaokai and at least four other babies reported by the Associated Press have not been included in China’s official death toll, suggesting that the tainted milk scandal may have exacted a higher human toll than the government has acknowledged.



No close family members were there and apart from the four men, no one knows where the baby girl is buried.

China Food Fears Go From Pets To People

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 25, 2007; Page A01

SHANGHAI — Something was wrong with the babies. The villagers noticed their heads were growing abnormally large while the rest of their bodies were skin and bones. By the time Chinese authorities discovered the culprit — severe malnutrition from fake milk powder — 13 had died.

The scandal, which unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in an eastern Chinese province, became the defining symbol of a broad problem in China’s economy. Quality control and product-safety regulation are so poor in this country that people cannot trust the goods on store shelves.

In China, more than 200 million farmers grow a variety of crops on plots of one to two acres, earning less than $200 a year.
In China, more than 200 million farmers grow a variety of crops on plots of one to two acres, earning less than $200 a year. (By Eugene Hoshiko — Associated Press)

Until now, the problem has not received much attention outside of China. In recent weeks, however, consumers everywhere have been learning about China’s safety crisis. Tainted ingredients that originated here made their way into pet food that has sickened and killed animals around the world.

Chinese authorities acknowledge the safety problem and have promised repeatedly to fix it, but the disasters keep coming. Tang Yanli, 45, grand-aunt of a baby who became sick because of the fake milk but eventually recovered, said that even though she now pays more to buy national brands, she remains suspicious.

“I don’t trust the food I eat,” she said. “I don’t know which products are good, which are bad.”
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Pirate’s Gold Premium Chocolate Coins candies were indeed removed from store shelves — in Canada.

“The Pirates Gold Coins were not distributed in the United States,” Stephanie Kwisnek, spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said in an e-mail response to questions from The Daily Journal.

On Oct. 8, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, similar to the U.S. FDA, issued a warning about the candy, which is manufactured in China and distributed by Maryland-based Sherwood Brands.

“Some of the source ingredients in the candy were from China,” Marilyn Taylor of the food inspection agency told The Daily Journal Thursday. The candy was sold in Costco stores and other dollar and bulk stores, she said.

The FDA has a list of food sold in the United States that may be contaminated with melamine. Pirate’s Gold was not on the list.

Calls to Sherwood Brands were not returned. A letter on its Web site said the melamine contamination was isolated to products sold in Canada.

Kwisnek urged consumers to the FDA’s Web site, where they can find safety tips for Halloween candy and a link to information about melamine and the contaminated foods list: www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/kids/treats.html

~ Kristin Szremski