Tainted milk: 10,000 Chinese kids still ailing (3:02 p.m.)
BEIJING - More than 10,000 children remain hospitalized after being sickened in China’s tainted milk scandal, officials said, as the government released its first rules on allowable levels of the chemical blamed in the ailments.
The Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site Wednesday that eight of the 10,666 children were in serious condition after drinking milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can lead to kidney stones and possibly life-threatening kidney failure.
No new deaths have been recorded, it said. The scandal has so far been blamed for the deaths of four babies and the sickening of more than 54,000 others in China.
But the effects of the scandal continue to be felt, forcing the government to deal with festering health and public relations issues. China’s food exports have increasingly suffered, with more nations issuing import bans.
A Philippine health official said Southeast Asian countries should review and strengthen regulations to shield their people from potentially harmful products that now move easier across borders in the era of free trade.
“Presently, our governments are confronted with the fear engendered by melamine milk products finding their way into our local markets,” Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said at the opening of a meeting of health ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila.
“Such is the trade-off of globalization - that is a globalization without effective and coordinated global governance.”
Chinese dairy suppliers have been accused of adding melamine - used in products including plastics, paint and adhesives - to watered-down milk to make the product appear rich in protein and fool quality control tests.
There had been no previous standards for the amount of the chemical allowed in food products.
Under Health Ministry guidelines released Wednesday, melamine is now limited to one part per million for infant formula and 2.5 parts per million for liquid milk, milk powder and food products that contain more than 15 percent milk.
Wang Xuening, a ministry official, acknowledged that small amounts of melamine can leech from the environment and packaging into milk and other foods, but said deliberate tainting was explicitly forbidden.
Levels of melamine discovered in batches of milk powder recently registered as much as 6,196 parts per million.
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says its experts have concluded that eating 2.5 parts per million of melamine - a minuscule amount - would not raise health risks, even if a person ate food every day that contained it.
Guidelines in Hong Kong and New Zealand say melamine in food products is considered safe at 2.5 parts per million or less, though Hong Kong has lowered the level for children under 3 and pregnant or lactating women to one part per million.
China’s food exports have suffered significantly from the scandal, with more than 30 countries restricting Chinese dairy products, and in some cases all Chinese food exports. (AP/Sunnex)
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