An update to the tainted milk story from VOANews.com:
China is vowing to stop tainted milk from reaching export markets, amid a growing scandal...Four Chinese infants have already died from drinking toxic milk products and more than 53,000 others have been made sick...The widening scandal has already claimed
resignations from several officials, including Li Changjiang, the head
of China's top quality inspection agency.
Apparently this was a known problem for eight months before anyone did anything about it.
53,000 kids sick? Nasty.
Original post follows.
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The number of children affected by a dangerous chemical in certain brands of Chinese-made baby formula is going up. CNN is reporting that more than 13,000 children in China have been, "sickened by tainted milk."
The details are even worse: four babies have died, and a 3-year-old girl in Hong Kong was hospitalized after drinking the tainted formula. The little girl was released, but this means that the illnesses are no longer isolated to Mainland China.
AND: "In addition, nearly 40,000 other infants and young children have received outpatient medical treatment and consultation as a result of the tainted milk," according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.
The issue, according to published reports, is that the formula contains a chemical called melamine, which is a "key ingredient in most fire retardant materials." In other words, not something anyone should be eating.
Full details are on CNN.com.
A reader emailed to ask if we knew whether or not any U.S. formula brands were affected. We do not. That's not to say that there is any reason to think that there IS a problem with any U.S. baby formulas; as far as I know (the key words there are "as far as I know") there have been no recalls or reports of infants becoming sick from baby formula in the United States. Still, I would be very careful with any formula that you buy, especially if you have any reason to believe it was manufactured in China. To clarify: we are NOT saying that you should avoid any brand of baby formula, we are only telling you what CNN has reported. There has been some concern that boxes of Sanlu-brand formula may be on store shelves in Chinese grocery stores in the United States; more details are here.
Source: CNN
Image: china.org.cn
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