Of Melamine And Tainted Milk

After the conclusion of the summer Olympic in Beijing, China is still basking in the spotlights but for the wrong reason. China's milk scandal (milk tainted with banned Melamine) bares government shortcomings and thousand of babies paid for their government ignorance. Most thought that the Chinese government was aware of the tainted milk crisis since late last year but they kept quite until the Olympic functions was over. After all Olympic is their national pride.

Since China's tainted milk scandal has been a global issue and search or query on Melamine will steadily rise in Google search ranking, take the opportunity to blog about melamine, tainted milk and the whole mess happening in China. Heck, maybe you can make some money online along the way.

Yes, we all pitied the suffering babies and as bloggers, it would do the world great justice if you blog about it. To give you ideas, blog anything about melamine (or fake protein) and the related health issues. People are desperate to know which milk are not tainted and safe for baby consumption, which dairy products are banned, how melamine was used in the manufacturing of the milk powder, social impact, why China like to produce fake things, and what not.

What is Melamine

Melamine is an organic compound that is often combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a synthetic polymer which is fire resistant and heat tolerant. Melamine resin is a very versatile material with a highly stable structure. Uses for melamine include whiteboards, floor tiles, kitchenware, fire retardant fabrics, and commercial filters. Melamine can be easily molded while warm, but will set into a fixed form. This property makes it ideally suited to certain industrial applications.

Uses of Melamine

Melamine is used combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a very durable thermosetting plastic, and melamine foam, a polymeric cleaning product. The end products include countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, glues, housewares and flame retardants. Melamine is one of the major components in Pigment Yellow 150, a colorant in inks and plastics.

Melamine is also used to make fertilizers. Melamine is sometimes unethically added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content (read: fake protein).

Side effects of Melamine

Melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid it can cause fatal kidney stones.

Incidents involving combination of melamine and cyanuric acid

2007 pet food recalls. In 2007 a pet food recall was initiated by Menu Foods and other pet food manufacturers who had found their products had been contaminated and caused serious illnesses or deaths in some of the animals that had eaten them. The practice of adding "melamine scrap" to animal feed is reported to be widespread in China in order to give the appearance of increased protein content in animal feed.

2007 Ohio recalls. Melamine has also been purposely added as a binder to fish and livestock feed manufactured in the United States and traced to suppliers in Ohio and Colorado.

September 2008 Sanlu tainted milk. Sanlu recalled all powdered milk in the north-west China's Gansu province where melamine was reported to have been used in 22 brands of infant formula, making more than 53,000 infants ill and hospitalizing almost 12,900. Melamine has also been found in products produced by Yili Industrial Group Co, and Mengniu Dairy Co. As of 18 September 2008 there had been four confirmed infant deaths from the contamination of powdered milk with melamine with a number of survivors diagnosed with acute kidney failure.

Melamine may have been added to fool government quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk's volume. The adulterant melamine was added to the milk to allow the company to dilute the milk with water and circumvent government regulations, since melamine will cause a false increase in the measurement of protein by increasing the nitrogen levels in the milk. Officials estimate that about 20 percent of the dairy companies tested in China sell products tainted with melamine.

China's milk scandal affect the economy

Stock prices of dairy product manufacturers were rattled yesterday in the wake of the melamine milk scare in China. Meanwhile, Sanlu brand 'won't survive tainted formula' its New Zealand partner said. Sanlu is 43 per cent owned by New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative.

How melamine started the milk crisis in China

Sanlu, one of China's leading dairy producers, admitted its powdered milk products were contaminated with melamine following news reports that dozens of babies became sick with kidney stones after consuming the Sanlu brand of baby milk powder.

The suspects added water to the milk they sold to Sanlu to make more money. They also added melamine so that the diluted milk could still meet standards, said investigators.

Health experts said melamine is a chemical raw material. Ingestion can lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones.

Melamine is toxic

Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.

Melamine first uses a fake protein

Well, did you know, the cowboy ranchers started it ? Melamine use as non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle was described in a 1958 patent. In 1978, however, a study concluded that melamine "may not be an acceptable non-protein N source for ruminants" because its hydrolysis in cattle is slower and less complete than other nitrogen sources such as cottonseed meal and urea.

UPDATES
* Jan 22, 2009: Death sentence over fake milk and melamine
* Dec 26, 2008: Melamine brothers on trial for tainted milk scandal
* Sep 30, 2008: Melamine Milk Panic