Oct 8, 2008 China sets limit for melamine in milk:

"""Safe melamine limits were set at 1 part per million of 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 and levels of melamine discovered in batches of milk powder recently registered as much as 6,196 parts per million. Chinese health officials have said no harm comes from consuming less than 0.63 parts per million."""

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/08/AR2008100800325.html

5CatMom
₌^..^₌

DMS,

Maybe they checked with the "gold standard", the US's FDA.

It's beyond me why anyone would believe that food producers have either the will or the ability to hold the amount of contamination to 2.5 ppm, or to any limit.

Dishonest food producers are being rewarded with "allowable limits"  -- a green light for the contamination to continue.

5CatMom
₌^..^₌

http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnTRE4974YX.html

China milk victims may have reached 94,000
Wed 8 Oct 2008, 12:27 GMT Reuters

"The toll of Chinese children ill from toxic milk formula may have nearly doubled since the Health Ministry's last public count, local media reports show, but an official said on Wednesday the number of new cases was falling.

"Beijing is struggling with fallout from adulteration of milk with the industrial chemical melamine. At home four babies have died, and thousands of infants fell sick, while around the world products made with Chinese milk have been recalled.

"The government has not updated figures issued on September 21, when it said that 12,892 infants were in hospital, 104 with serious illness, and close to 40,000 others were affected but did not need major treatment.

"But reports from local media across the country compiled by Reuters suggest the number of affected children has risen to nearly 94,000, although most are not in a serious condition.

"In some areas diagnoses rocketed up in the space of just a few days. In the most extreme case, northwestern Gansu province, the number of sick children climbed to 13,459 by Sept 26 from 1,695 a week earlier, the official Xinhua agency said.

"Worst hit so far is central Henan province, with over 30,000 cases by the end of September. Neighbouring Hebei also has nearly 16,000 cases. The province is home to Sanlu Dairy group, which made the contaminated formula that sparked the broader scandal.

"Despite the rash of cases across the country -- few areas appear to have been entirely immune -- the government says it has the problem under control and recent checks have found no trace of melamine, the toxic additive, in liquid milk.

"The number of sick children appearing at hospitals is also falling after news of the problem has blanketed domestic media and spread across the internet, prompting parents to take extra care about what they feed their children.

""The daily reports of infants who were diagnosed and hospitalized are decreasing noticeably, " said Chen Junshi, a researcher from Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety of Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

"But he declined to say how many had been ill overall.

""I'm not authorised to publish the number of sick infants," he added at a news conference held by the Ministry of Health.

"Even if the pace of new diagnoses is slowing, there is still room for a major leap in the total number of affected children because some of the country's most densely populated cities and provinces, like Shanghai, have not yet disclosed any figures."

http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1579708/a_scandal_that_keeps_growing/

A Scandal That Keeps Growing
Posted on: Monday, 6 October 2008, 15:00 CDT
The contaminated milk scandal widens daily and consumers are being worried by ever more reports of melamine-related product recalls ...

Clearly, the numbers of companies and products embroiled in the scandal extend far beyond Sanlu operations and Fonterra's involvement with them. That does not lessen the extent to which Fonterra bosses should be held to account for their failure to anticipate what has been described as a disaster waiting to happen.

Alarm bells should have clanged when the US Food and Drug Administration last year found ingredients imported from China, then used in more than 100 brands of American pet foods, may have been intentionally spiked with melamine to boost their apparent protein content. . Cats and dogs were sickened; many died. Some pigs that ate tainted feed were processed into human food. This scandal is one of many to highlight Chinese indifference to standards. Fonterra knows - or should know - the importance of setting standards and of maintaining reliable quality controls. Heads should roll because of its negligence through acquiescing to have things done the Chinese way.

Well, the Kiwis of New Zealand have it right. 65 other countries worldwide know what to do. Mr. Dingell, Mr. Stupak, Ms. DeLauro, where
are you? American consumers, who love their children deeply, need to hear serious ALARM BELLS to prevent this "disaster waiting to happen"
from happening a second time in the United States.

I sent an email to one of the toxicologists involved in the pet food recall asking his opinion of what was going on with the melamine scandal now and why last year they told us that the combo of CA and melamine was necessary for the kidney destruction and his response was that last week the Food Response Network was activated to see if it is just melamine or more than that...I also had asked him about any studies on the animals that survived the recall last year as he wanted to pursue that but he never did as he got no funding...   Too bad that funding was not made available as it sure would come in handy now wouldn't it!

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13413&size=A

Japan has stepped up inspection of China-made animal feed and pet food that may be laced with melamine

Thank you, billyD. Pretty close to home and Halloween, and from Cosco.

http://news.xinhuanet.com:80/english/2008-10/08/content_10166333.htm
Chinese police arrest 14 more people in milk scandal 
www.chinaview.cn  2008-10-08 17:18:58      Print
 
    SHIJIAZHUANG, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Police in north China's Hebei Province arrested 14 more people in connection with the country's tainted milk scandal, putting the total arrests in the province at27.
    Cao Aiping, Hebei Provincial Public Security Department's deputy director told Xinhua that police had questioned 91 people which generated 27 arrests, since the first 13 arrests on Sept. 29.