3 more girls suffer kidney stones in Macau

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Posted on 11th November 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 11/11/2008

HONG KONG (AP) _ Macau authorities say three more children in the Chinese gambling enclave have developed kidney stones that may be linked to Chinese milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

A government statement says the three girls aged from 4 to 8 are in stable condition and do not require hospitalization.

The Monday statement says the children attend schools where authorities provide students with free milk produced by Yili Industrial Group Co.

Yili is one of several Chinese dairies implicated in a scandal on the mainland in which melamine-laced dairy products have killed four infants and sickened more than 50,000.

Melamine is used to make plastics and fertilizer.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Melamine already in global food chain: experts say

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Posted on 31st October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/31/2008

By GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ First it was baby milk formula. Then, dairy-based products from yogurt to chocolate.

Now chicken eggs have been contaminated with melamine, and an admission by state-run media that the industrial chemical is regularly added to animal feed in China is fueling fears the problem could be more widespread, affecting fish, meat and who knows what else.

Peter Dingle, a toxicity expert at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, said, however, that aside from the tainted baby formula that killed at least four Chinese infants and left 54,000 children hospitalized just over a month ago, it is unlikely humans will get sick from melamine.

The amount of the chemical in a few servings of bacon, for instance, would simply be too low, he said.

But Dingle and others said China should have cracked down sooner on feed companies that have boosted their earnings by fortifying their products with the chemical, which is normally used in the manufacture of plastic and fertilizers.

Rich in nitrogen, melamine gives low-quality food and feed artificially high protein readings.

“Traders can make a lot of profit by doing it,” said Jason Yan, the U.S. Grains Council’s technical director in Beijing.

Extremely high levels of melamine — as found in the Chinese baby formula — can cause kidney stones, and in extreme cases can bring on life-threatening kidney failure.

But while scientists say it’s not dangerous to ingest small amounts, they cannot be definitive because there have been no tests on melamine’s effects in humans. Until the contaminated baby formula became public in September, there was never any reason to.

That leaves consumers worldwide, particularly parents, worried about food products from China, and even those made elsewhere with ingredients imported from Chinese companies.

Among those not taking any chances is Pranee Suankaew, a homemaker in Bangkok, Thailand.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” the 37-year-old mother said as she tugged her 4-year-old away from the candy aisle where he eagerly eyed a bag of M&Ms.; “We’re getting you fruit and a lollipop. There’s no milk in that.”

She said she usually gives in to avoid tantrums. “But this time, I told him, no, no, no.”

Experts say melamine sometimes accidentally leaches into the food supply in low levels, from things like plastic dinnerware. It can also seep in from some pesticides and fertilizers.

But in China it’s become clear that the chemical is deliberately added.

The baby formula set off a global recall of foods made with Chinese dairy products and sparked raids in supermarkets across Asia. Twelve truckloads of candy, yogurt and other dairy-based goods were burned in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, just this week.

In light of Wednesday reports by state media on the widespread use of the chemical in animal feed, health experts say the government clearly knew melamine was being added for more than a year, since contaminated dog food made it to markets in North America, but didn’t crack down on producers as promised.

With the scandal escalating, Chinese leaders are now desperate to clean up the country’s image, making dozens of arrests in recent weeks and firing local and even high-level officials for negligence.

John Chapple, a Singapore-based adviser to Sinoanalytica, a food analysis laboratory in the Chinese city of Qingdao, said the decision to allow state media to report on the years of melamine use seems to show the government is ready to be more active in dealing with food safety.

“However, one is not going to change a hierarchical government system overnight,” he added. “It is usually going to be slow to start to react to a crisis, but quick to finally nail it.”

Though China has vowed to boost inspections for melamine contamination, it will be difficult to monitor the countless small, illegally operating manufacturers found across the country, other experts said.

“It could take five or even 10 years” before some companies stop adding the chemical to food products, said Yan, of the U.S. Grains Council.

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Associated Press writer Robin McDowell in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Australia recalls products in tainted milk scandal

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Posted on 20th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/19/2008 11:30 PM

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ Australian officials ordered the recall of a milk drink and cake brand after tests showed they were contaminated with melamine, bringing to six the number of Chinese-made products withdrawn in Australia following China’s tainted milk scandal.

A spokeswoman for Food Standards Australia New Zealand said Monday that Orion brand Tiramisu Italian Cake with Cheese Cream and Dali Yuan brand First Milk vanilla-flavored drink were recalled Friday after government tests revealed the Chinese-made products contained low levels of melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened tens of thousands of Chinese children.

A sample of the cakes was found to contain 4.4 parts per million of melamine, while the milk drink had 5.8 ppm, Food Standards spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said. The agency has set the safe limit at 2.5 ppm.

The other products previously recalled in Australia are Kirin Milk Tea, Lotte Koala Biscuits, Cadbury Eclairs and White Rabbit candies.

Milk powder contaminated with melamine has been blamed for the deaths of four infants and for sickening about 54,000 others in mainland China. Hong Kong has also found 10 children with kidney stones who had consumed Chinese-made milk products.

Melamine is used in the manufacturing of plastics, fertilizer, paint and adhesives. Health experts say ingesting a small amount poses no danger, but in larger doses, the chemical can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Chinese government summons major dairy companies

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Posted on 17th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/17/2008 7:35 AM

By HENRY SANDERSON
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ China summoned five of its major dairy companies to a meeting Friday over the fate of Sanlu Group Co., the company at the center of a tainted milk scandal that has sickened thousands and led to the deaths of four children, state media reported.

The five companies were brought to Beijing to discuss the purchase of the company, the 21st Century Business Herald, a major business daily, reported Friday.

The government is trying to revive its dairy industry and contain the fallout after baby formula contaminated with melamine was blamed for the deaths of four infants and the sickening of about 54,000 other children in China.

The Health Ministry said Wednesday that 5,800 children were still hospitalized — six of them in serious condition. In Hong Kong, the Department of Health said Friday two more children have developed kidney stones after drinking melamine-laced milk, bringing to 10 the total number of children with milk-related kidney stones.

Sanlu, a majority state-owned company whose products were the most heavily tainted, is now largely defunct, with companies looking to scoop up its assets. It is 43 percent-owned by New Zealand’s Fonterra Group dairy.

The companies invited to the meeting were Chinese beverage-maker Wahaha Group, Wondersun, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Sanyuan Foods Ltd. and Heilongjiang-based Feihe Dairy, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of New York-listed American Dairy Inc.

Both Sanyuan and Wahaha have been discussed in state media as likely buyers of Sanlu’s assets, but the paper also quoted Wondersun’s board chairman as saying they were considering it. But any buyer would have to take on Sanlu’s debt and the possibility of compensation to consumers, the paper said.

Jin Biao, vice president at Yili, confirmed that a meeting was called by the government but said the main focus was on how to improve the management of Sanlu’s milk collection stations and how to deal with the company’s capital. He said Yili had sent a representative.

“It is too early now to talk about the acquisition,” he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Lianfang Chen, an analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co., said the meeting would discuss resuming milk production at Sanlu’s factories, keeping its workers employed, and also resume buying raw milk to keep farmers employed.

“Though Sanlu does not have any value as a brand, its processing facility, raw milk bases, production capacity and experienced workers and managerial expertise still have great value. That’s what makes a selling point,” Chen said.

Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said Friday that discussions continuing around Sanlu “include the possibility of Sanlu being acquired by a third party,” and Fonterra is involved in a number of the discussions.

But he said the long-term future of Sanlu “and Fonterra’s stake in the company” remained uncertain. Fonterra wrote down $85 million of its stake last month, but has retained on its books an estimated $38 million worth of its investment.

A spokesman for Fonterra said they did not send anyone to the meeting but expect to be briefed by representatives of Sanlu, who are taking part.

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Associated Press Writer Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this article.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Summary

Settlement to be argued in big pet food case

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Posted on 14th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/14/2008 5:08 AM

By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press Writer

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) _ Thousands of pet owners whose dogs and cats died last year after eating contaminated pet food traced to China could be close to a $32 million settlement.

A federal judge in Camden was to hear oral arguments on the final proposal Tuesday. The court also will consider any filed objections.

The settlement allows pet owners to apply for expenses associated with deaths and illnesses, including the costs of veterinarians, time missed from work to care for sick animals, replacement pets, burial expenses and even property damaged because animals got sick.

In addition to the $8 million they had already agreed to pay owners of sickened pets, the pet food companies would put up $24 million for the settlement.

The case began in March 2007, when companies that make or sell pet food — including Menu Foods Income Fund, which makes dog and cat food under about 90 brand names from its base in Streetsville, Ontario — agreed to settle lawsuits with pet owners.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later found that the food contained melamine, a chemical used to make plastics. The chemical was traced to contaminated wheat gluten imported from China.

In April, lawyers for representing plaintiffs and dozens of companies announced they had struck a deal for pet owners in the United States and Canada.

Under the terms, even those who did not keep any receipts for either the pet food or the costs of the pets’ illness and death could get up to $900 per animal.

If any money is left after all plaintiffs are paid, it would go to animal-welfare charities.

But the agreement did not include any money for the humans’ pain and suffering from injuries to their pets. That has upset some pet owners.

One, Donna Elliott, of Fries, Va., for instance, sent U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman a picture of her late boxer, Abby.

“How do you answer the statement on the claim form, what was the value of your pet?” she asked. “My companion was everything in the world to me.”

In one court filing, the parties that struck the settlement explained: “This settlement does not pretend to do what it cannot — which is to make people fully whole for their incomprehensible losses,” the filing said. “The settlement is, however, a reflection of strenuous efforts to secure the maximum economic relief available.”

As of Sept. 30, more than 9,500 people in the United States and Canada had made claims, while just over 100 people had preserved their rights to sue separately. Relatively few — 28 — had filed objections to the settlement.

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On the Net:

Claim information: http://www.petfoodsettlement.com

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Tainted milk, a baby's death and lawsuit in China

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Posted on 13th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/13/2008 4:18 PM

By CARA ANNA
Associated Press Writer

XINXING, China (AP) _ Heartbroken at the sudden death of their baby boy, the Yi family struggled to forget what they thought was a tragic twist of fate. They burned his clothes, toys, everything but a single photo and the baby formula he drank.

Then health officials suddenly arrived at the family’s rural home last month with shocking news: Milk contaminated by an industrial chemical might have killed their son. On Monday, the Yis filed a lawsuit against the company at the heart of the scandal — the first court action by a family of a child who died.

Unrecognized at the time, 6-month-old Yi Kaixuan’s death in May made him among the first victims in what would become a nationwide scandal. It would be another four months before the dairy, Sanlu Group Co., revealed there was a problem, and the government later confirmed there was widespread contamination of China’s milk supply. Four infants have died and tens of thousands of children were sickened.

“I have no idea how any of this happened,” Yi Yongsheng, the baby’s slight, soft-spoken father, told The Associated Press on Sunday as he ran his fingers through his hair.

His wife, Jiao Hongfang, crouched outside in the courtyard cooking silently. She had collapsed in grief at her son’s death and again in September when officials came with news of the tainted milk.

“She doesn’t want to face this anymore,” Yi said.

The scandal is one of the worst tainted food crises in China in years. It has exposed shoddy practices in the booming dairy industry and raised questions about when the government first knew dairy products were contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in making plastics and fertilizers. Unscrupulous suppliers are suspected of adding it to watered-down milk to mask the resulting protein deficiency in quality tests.

Sanlu — a state-owned company whose products were the most heavily tainted — is now largely defunct, with the Xinhua News Agency reporting Monday that several other companies were vying to scoop up its assets.

Worst affected, however, have been China’s poor, who turned to Sanlu products because they were less expensive.

In places like Xinxing, a town of brick and packed-earth houses surrounded by corn fields in the roughly terraced hills of western China, families have little. Yi spends most of the year working construction jobs in one of China’s largest cities, Xi’an, while Jiao tends their small plot of land. The family makes about $580 a year.

The baby boy was their second child; they have a 5-year-old daughter. China’s strict family planning rules allow many rural Chinese to have a second child in order to try for a boy, in a nod to traditional preferences for male heirs.

Infant formula for the baby was expensive but necessary. Jiao’s breast milk wasn’t enough, Yi said, so they started supplementing with milk powder. By his second month, formula was all the infant was fed. They thought the formula was healthy, and Sanlu was a brand with a good reputation.

“And it was just a little cheaper than the others,” Yi said — $2.60 for a package that would last three or four days.

But on April 20, the baby wouldn’t stop crying and had problems urinating. Jiao took him to the village clinic, but they couldn’t pinpoint a problem.

Alarmed, Yi left his construction job and returned home. The family headed for the Gansu provincial capital, Lanzhou. On April 30, they took the baby to two city hospitals. Doctors were stunned, Yi said. They said they’d never seen a child with so many kidney stones, and the situation was critical.

A frenzy of testing followed, and the bills piled up past $145. The parents didn’t sleep all night, waiting.

Around noon the next day, a doctor came to tell them their baby had died.

No one at the time, the doctors included, seemed to link the kidney stones and the infant formula.

Terrible luck, the family decided. In keeping with local custom that treats the death of a child so young as a tragedy best quickly forgotten, they burned everything. They kept a single photo of the child — shown with his grandfather during Chinese New Year in February — and the infant formula. It was a luxury and could be used for another child. There was no funeral.

“Burning those things was like walking away,” Yi said. “To keep looking at them and remembering would be too sad.”

The family did their best to forget the boy, until Gansu provincial health officials arrived in mid-September. They asked many questions and took samples of the baby formula, then told the family to wait — they would call later with information.

Since then, the family hasn’t heard a word.

The Gansu provincial health department declined comment, its spokesman saying they do not give telephone interviews.

Yi only considered undertaking legal action after a friend contacted a Shanghai-based lawyer who’d grown up in the nearby city of Tianshui.

Attorney Dong Junming took the case without charge and started adding up the damages: $6,700, which Dong estimates equals 20 years of the average Gansu farmer’s salary; $146,000 for emotional damages.

“Frankly? Sanlu won’t pay out that much,” Dong said Sunday at a cafe in Lanzhou, where he was making final preparations for filing the lawsuit. “But we think this situation is really shocking, so we’re going to ask.”

Such liability suits are rare in China, despite growing public awareness of an individual’s legal rights. A group of some 100 lawyers who offered free legal advice to victims of the tainted milk scandal have faced official pressure to withdraw from the cases, attorney Chang Boyang told the AP. After the massive earthquake in May, some parents whose children died in the collapse of shoddily built schools said they were offered cash in return for signing pledges not to sue.

So far, just two other known lawsuits have been filed in the tainted milk scandal, both by families of babies who were sickened but survived. In both — one in southern Guangdong province, the other in central Henan — it is not clear whether the courts will accept the lawsuits. In the Yis’ case, Dong said he was told the court would make a decision Tuesday.

In Xinxing, Yi is relying on Dong to handle the legal details. He studied no further than ninth grade, and Jiao only went to primary school. They had placed their future in their children.

Both Yi and his wife are only 30, and Yi said some day they might try for another child, a sibling for their daughter.

The girl, Yi Xuan, really liked her baby brother, Yi said. “But maybe she’s already forgotten him.”

Yi sat on a low stool as he spoke, the single photo of the baby on a table beside him. The daughter, pink-cheeked and shy, hid behind him but eventually noticed the photo. She smiled and said the baby’s name.

She reached for the photo. But Yi looked hard at her and pushed it away.

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Associated Press researchers Ji Chen in Shanghai and Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

China dairy sued over infant's toxic milk death

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Posted on 13th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/13/2008 6:12 AM

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ The family of a baby whose death has been blamed on toxic milk filed suit against one of China’s largest dairies Monday, while another dairy ensnared in the scandal said it was a victim of unscrupulous subcontractors.

The lawsuit against Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. was filed over the May 1 death of 6-month-old Yi Kaixuan in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, the family’s lawyer said.

It is the first to be filed over a child who died from drinking the tainted milk and asks for almost $160,000 in damages.

Milk collection stations and individual farmers are accused of watering down milk to increase volume, then adding the industrial chemical melamine to increase protein levels. Melamine, used mainly in plastics and fertilizer, is high in nitrogen and can make milk appear to contain more protein, which is what quality tests measure.

The practice has been blamed for causing the deaths of four infants and sickening 54,000 others, with 10,000 still hospitalized.

Speaking on a television talk show late Sunday, the president of Bright Dairy said his company, one of the largest in the Chinese dairy industry, had been “too nice” toward milk collection stations that bought milk from farmers.

Large dairy companies typically buy raw milk gathered from small farmers at milking stations and collection centers, often by subcontractors responsible for safety testing. Safeguards were often lax and major milk producers have been criticized for not carrying out adequate testing.

The comments appeared aimed at restoring consumer confidence in the wake of the scandal that has dinged the reputation of some of China’s best-known food companies.

“We thought they were operating in good conscience,” Guo Benheng said on state television’s economics channel.

“I’d say we made an innocent mistake, although an innocent mistake is still a mistake. We are definitely making corrections,” Guo said, according to a transcript of his remarks posted on official Web sites Monday.

Appearing on the same show, the vice president of Mengniu Dairy, one of the country’s largest, said the scandal had affected the company profoundly.

“This sort of thing just tears your heart apart,” Zhao Yuanhua said.

The Yi family’s lawyer, Dong Junming, said he turned the lawsuit in at Lanzhou’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court where clerks told him they would notify him Tuesday as to whether it would be accepted.

At least two other lawsuits have been filed against Sanlu — the company at the center of the uproar — in recent weeks by parents of children suffering from kidney stones. It is not clear if courts will allow these suits to progress.

Product liability lawsuits are still relatively rare in China, and lawyers have complained of government pressure to withdraw from the cases.

Chinese milk powder and other food products have been banned from more than a dozen countries, worsening an increasingly painful downturn in China’s crucial export sector and threatening household incomes in the vast, mostly poor countryside.

The scandal has struck a blow to China’s efforts to build global brand names and establish healthy business practices.

Newspapers on Monday reported Chinese beverage-maker Hangzhou Wahaha Group was considering buying dairy assets from Sanlu Group, the milk-maker accused of attempting to cover up melamine tainting.

Sanlu is 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Group, which has already slashed the value of its investment. China’s government took over and suspended Sanlu’s operations last month, and company heads have been detained for investigation.

China’s dairy industry has sped ahead in recent years, far outpacing regulatory structures aimed at ensuring safety and quality. Since the tainting scandal broke last month, strict standards for allowable melamine levels in food have been set and 5,000 government inspectors dispatched to provide 24-hour supervision over the industry.

Last week, police arrested a dairy farmer accused of producing 600 tons of melamine-spiked protein powder. Eight dairy farm owners and milk buyers were also arrested for purchasing the powder.

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Associated Press writer Cara Anna contributed to this report from Shanghai.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Chinese tighten dairy regulations after scandal

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Posted on 10th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/10/2008 12:15 PM

By TINI TRAN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ China’s State Council tightened quality control regulations for the dairy industry Friday, as authorities in Macau and Hong Kong reported several children had kidney stones blamed on Chinese tainted milk.

Contaminated milk powder, laced with the industrial chemical melamine, has been blamed for causing the deaths of four infants and sickening more than 54,000 others.

More than 10,000 children remained hospitalized with eight of them in serious condition, the Health Ministry said.

The new regulations, effective immediately, tighten control over cattle breeding, the purchase of raw milk and the production and sale of dairy products, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The measures also increase punishments for those caught violating safety standards.

On Friday, police in northern Hebei province arrested a suspect accused of producing 600 tons of melamine-spiked protein powder, Xinhua said. Eight dairy farm owners and milk buyers were also arrested purchasing the powder, it said.

In Hong Kong, a 10-year-old boy was diagnosed with two kidney stones, the Department of Health said, raising the total number of children with milk-related kidney stones to seven in Hong Kong and Macau.

Meanwhile, Macau’s Health Bureau said three girls between the ages of 4 and 7 have developed kidney stones. Their conditions were not immediately known.

The boy has been drinking high-calcium, low-fat milk made by the Chinese dairy Yili Industrial Group Co. everyday for the past six years, the health department said. He is in stable condition and does not require hospitalization.

Also Friday, parents of an 11-month-old diagnosed with kidney stones filed a lawsuit against the Sanlu Group Co. — the dairy company at the heart of the tainted milk crisis.

It is the second known lawsuit against the company, whose baby formula was to contain high levels of melamine.

Earlier this month, parents from central Henan province filed suit against Sanlu, seeking $22,000 in compensation for medical, travel and other expenses incurred after their 14-month-old baby developed kidney stones.

It is not clear if courts will allow these suits to progess as product liability lawsuits are still relatively rare in China, and lawyers have complained of government pressure to withdraw from the cases.

Chinese authorities believe dairy farmers added melamine — used in plastics, paint and adhesives — to watered-down milk to make the product appear rich in protein and fool quality control tests.

The practice was apparently widespread in the industry, with government investigations finding 37 Chinese dairy companies, including the most reputable brands, had sold tainted products.

Police have arrested 36 people in connection with the scandal in Hebei, where Sanlu is headquartered, Xinhua said.

The scandal has sparked global concern about Chinese food imports, with more than 30 countries restricting Chinese dairy products, and in some cases all Chinese food imports.

This week, the Chinese Health Ministry issued guidelines limiting acceptable melamine levels. There had been no previous standards for the amount of the chemical allowed in food products.

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Group, which has a 43 percent stake in Sanlu, announced Friday it will spend $5 million to fund a Chinese charity to establish a health care program for mothers and babies in poor rural areas of China.

Meanwhile, Myanmar state media reported nine brands of imported milk and infant powder have been tainted with melamine. The New Light of Myanmar said that of the 16 brands of milk and milk powder tested, nine contained melamine.

Slovak food safety officials said Friday they found unsafe levels of melamine in a shipment of chocolate bisuits and snacks imported from China.

In Paris, France’s Agriculture Ministry ordered a recall Friday of White Rabbit candies and Koala biscuits linked to Chinese dairy products amid concerns about high melamine levels.

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Associated Press Writer Dikky Sinn contributed to this report from Hong Kong.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Second lawsuit filed in tainted milk scandal

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Posted on 10th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/10/2008 1:13 AM

By TINI TRAN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ A second lawsuit was filed against a Chinese dairy company at the heart of the tainted milk crisis, an attorney said Friday, as more than 10,000 children remained hospitalized after being fed milk powder laced with an industrial chemical.

Zhang Xiuwen, a migrant worker from southern Guangdong province, filed a legal claim after his 11-month-old son was diagnosed with kidney stones, his lawyer Chen Beiyuan said. The baby had been fed formula produced by Sanlu Group Co. since his birth.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court has yet to accept the lawsuit, which is seeking US$132,000 in compensation, Chen confirmed in a telephone interview.

He said he was also planning to file a suit against the Dairy Association in China for failing to supervise its members.

The milk powder, laced with the chemical melamine, has been blamed for causing the deaths of four infants and sickening more than 54,00 others.

The practice was apparently widespread in the industry, with government investigations showing that 37 Chinese dairy companies — including its most reputable brands — had tainted dairy products.

Chinese dairy suppliers have been accused of adding melamine — used in plastics, paint and adhesives — to watered-down milk to make the product appear rich in protein and fool quality control tests.

Eight of the 10,666 children hospitalized are in serious condition after drinking the contaminated powder, which can lead to kidney stones and life-threatening kidney failure, the Health Ministry said this week.

Earlier this month, parents from central Henan province filed the first known lawsuit against Sanlu, seeking US$22,000 in compensation for medical, travel and other expenses incurred after their 14-month-old baby developed kidney stones. The infant remains hospitalized.

The court in Zhenping county has also not yet decided whether to accept that case.

Although product liability lawsuits have become more common in recent years, lawyers advising the families of children sickened in the scandal said this week they are facing growing pressure from Chinese government officials to withdraw from the cases.

The government has been struggling to show the public that it is dealing successfully with the scandal, but controls have also been imposed on media coverage of the crisis.

The scandal has sparked global concern about Chinese food imports, with more than 30 countries restricting Chinese dairy products, and in some cases all Chinese food exports. Recalls have also occurred in several countries of Chinese-made milk powders, biscuits and candies such as the widely sold White Rabbit sweets.

This week, the Health Ministry released guidelines on permissible levels of melamine in food. The chemical 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.

There had been no previous standards for the amount of the chemical allowed in food products.

Wang Xuening, a ministry official, said small amounts of melamine can leach from the environment and packaging into milk and other foods, but that deliberate tainting was explicitly forbidden.

Levels of melamine discovered in batches of milk powder recently registered as much as 6,196 parts per million.

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Group, which has a 43 percent stake in Sanlu, announced Friday it will fund a Chinese charity to establish a health care program for mothers and babies in poor rural areas of China.

“We want to do what we can in China to help, particularly in areas around infant health and maternal issues,” Chief Executive Andrew Ferrier said in a statement.

Ferrier said Fonterra is donating US$5 million to the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation to fund the program over five years. The program will set up community centers in rural and undeveloped areas that will provide resources to support healthy prenatal and postnatal care.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Chinese lawyers say pressured to drop milk cases

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Posted on 7th October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/7/2008 10:49 AM

By GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ Lawyers advising victims of China’s spreading tainted milk scandal said Tuesday they faced growing pressure from officials in central China to withdraw from the cases.

The families of many of the children sickened by milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine have been turning to a loose grouping of more than a hundred lawyers across China for free legal advice, said Chang Boyang, one of the lawyers.

The tainted milk has been blamed in the deaths of four babies and for sickening more than 54,000 children and shaken confidence worldwide in Chinese exports.

The government has been struggling to show the public that it is dealing successfully with the scandal, which comes on the heels of the widely praised Beijing Olympics. On Monday, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, acknowledged that the dairy industry was “chaotic” and had suffered from a grave lack of oversight, while pledging to monitor milk products from farm to dinner table.

But the government has also imposed controls on media coverage of the crisis, suggesting it does not want it to become a focal point of public dismay.

At least 14 lawyers from Henan province who have been advising people affected by the scandal were told by officials from the provincial government’s justice department to stop their activities, Chang told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

“They called me and my boss at my law firm and put pressure on me,” Chang said. “They said that this has become a political issue and that I ought to follow the arrangements set out by the government.”

“If this suggestion is disobeyed, the lawyer and the firm will be dealt with,” Chang cited the official as saying.

Henan’s justice department could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chinese authorities believe suppliers who were trying to cut costs diluted milk, then added melamine to fool quality control tests and make the product appear rich in protein. The chemical can cause kidney stones as the body tries to eliminate it and, in extreme cases, can lead to life-threatening kidney failure.

The State Council has ordered hospitals to provide free treatment for sick infants, but the lawyers want the government to compensate the victims.

Lawyers in the group have already helped the parents of a 1-year-old boy allegedly sickened by compromised milk to file a lawsuit against Sanlu Group Co., the dairy at the center of the crisis. The baby’s medical bills are not covered under the State Council’s directive because he became sick before the scandal broke on Sept. 12, according to a report by Caijing, a leading Chinese business magazine. Free medical care is only available to those sickened after that date.

The court in Henan has still not said if it will hear the case, which was filed late last month and is believed to be the first suit filed amid the scandal.

Chang said the lawyers have been preparing other clients for a potential joint lawsuit if the government continues to refuse to provide compensation.

Chang said although he and the other lawyers from Henan took their names off the list of volunteers for the group of lawyers, they still continued to field calls and offer advice.

“This incident will not affect my work. I was just giving the authorities ‘face’ by taking my name off the list,” Chang said. “Sometimes you’ve got to learn to compromise.”

The scandal — which has spread overseas with Chinese milk products pulled out of stores in dozens of countries — has forced the government to fire local and even high-level officials for negligence, and make repeated promises to raise product safety standards.

China’s iconic White Rabbit candy fell victim to the scandal after its Shanghai-based maker said it may have been tainted. The candy was pulled off supermarket shelves in the U.S., Europe and Asia. But a state-run newspaper said Tuesday it is now back in production.

Guan Sheng Yuan Co. did not say when White Rabbit candy would go on sale again, according to China Daily. The company could not be immediately contacted Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s vice minister of health, Cao Minh Quang, said Tuesday that 23 milk products had tested positive for melamine. The country has already recalled 300 tons of products, most imported from China, said chief health ministry inspector Tran Quang Trung.

The country’s top quality supervision agency said Tuesday new tests on liquid dairy products sold domestically found no traces of melamine, official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

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