Did you see this, 3cat?  There were a lot of posts following it.

http://www.adoptmed.org/topics/melamine-and-chinese-adoptions.html

They know a lot about this area.  They aren't recommending routine urine tests for children adopted from China right now, but seem to know a lot about those tests.  They could perhaps point you in the right direction to find them.

"As for specific testing for melamine itself in blood or urine, we are not doing that at this time. Such testing is investigational and hard to come by, and given the expected fairly rapid excretion of melamine, may not be of much clinical use. Plus, children may be exposed to insignificant amounts of melamine from other sources, which would complicate interpretation of results."

Good question 3cat.  Must be some imports in there.  What's the difference between Nestle Nutrition and Nestle USA?  And why do some not even have brand names, are those for institution use?  They must not be sold to the public without a name, or maybe they are repackaged with a name?  Maybe those are the imports. 

They talk about minimum amounts and everything below that is safe.  But, like someone said earlier, if you happened to feed the two forumlas with cyanuric acid and melamine, it seems like it wouldn't matter how small of an amount is in there, the two chemicals should precipitate and form crystals.  And then of course there is urea which is in the body already.

Nice find straybaby. When I clicked on one of the topics found this about the test: developed by the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has been adapted for use with infant formula. Test was developed due to the pet food in 2007 from a couple paragraphs in the topic.

I think this is where the FDA is really counting on the "dilution factor". We pass more than we retain. How do we like them odds?!

Somewhere in one of our threads, isn't there something about how this attaches to the inner workings of our bodies? This is different than "normal" stones, I think, in that this is a foreign body we are ingesting that is causing a reaction vs the more "natural" forming of stones in the bladder or kidney. I'm sure if we keep our bodies hydrated and flushed, we're a bit better off, but I'm not sure if it's as effective as "normal" stone prevention. We can also combat "normal" stone formation through diet. So far, the only thing I've heard in our bodies that might effect melamine is uric acid which we produce. We can control that, but we can't control melamine and MARC. And even if we eventually do pass most of it, what damage has it done in the meantime? Are damaged cells going to manifest into another issue? Is there residue that could cause cancer/tumors? Would the body be more apt to form stones due to trace or residue left in the body from uric acid that could be a forming point? Can the FDA answer any of these questions and back up the answer with facts?

Note: I'm basing my thoughts on what I know about blocking cats and Dalmatians.

Sure might be cheaper to pay for the dead but they have the courts against them in being able to have compensation for a company causing their loss.

This might be worth looking at.


http://www.emsl.com/Index.cfm?nav=Home

Quote from Straybaby

"Somewhere in one of our threads, isn't there something about how this attaches to the inner workings of our bodies? This is different than "normal" stones, I think, in that this is a foreign body we are ingesting that is causing a reaction vs the more "natural" forming of stones in the bladder or kidney. I'm sure if we keep our bodies hydrated and flushed, we're a bit better off, but I'm not sure if it's as effective as "normal" stone prevention. We can also combat "normal" stone formation through diet. So far, the only thing I've heard in our bodies that might effect melamine is uric acid which we produce. We can control that, but we can't control melamine and MARC. And even if we eventually do pass most of it, what damage has it done in the meantime? Are damaged cells going to manifest into another issue? Is there residue that could cause cancer/tumors? Would the body be more apt to form stones due to trace or residue left in the body from uric acid that could be a forming point? Can the FDA answer any of these questions and back up the answer with facts?"



Here's the answer from Poco's post


Melamine and cyanuric acid combine
with strong hydrogen bonding giving rise to the crystals. These
crystals cause a physical blockage of individual nephron tubules,
starting where the collecting ducts empty into the calyx of the
kidney. These crystals start irritating the tubular epithelium
initiating morphologic changes causing the epithelial cells to
enlarge. As the crystals accumulate, they cause a physical blockage of
the individual tubules. When a sufficient number of tubules are
blocked, renal functions becomes impaired.