Chinese Dairy Product Recall

As of now, there are over 52,000 cases of children getting sick over contaminated milk in China. As it turns out, the baby formula makers used the chemical melamine to fool safety tests into thinking it was just another protein. Turns out, the chemical melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Twenty-two brands of infant formula have added it to milk products to make it seem to have a higher protein level.

The consequences are that thousands of babies have been affected, with a common side effect of kidney stones. Burundi banned import of the products over the weekend, following action taken earlier by Gabon and Tanzania. In Asia, Taiwan’s Health Ministry announced a ban Monday, becoming the latest country to do so. Singapore, which suspended the import and sale of all milk and dairy products from China on Friday, said it has found traces of melamine in three Chinese-made dairy products. The United States does not import Chinese powdered milk.

A more in depth look at melamine:

Melamine was first synthesized by Liebig in 1834. In early production, first calcium cyanamide is converted into dicyandiamide, then heated above its melting temperature to produce melamine. However, today most industrial manufacturers use urea in the following reaction to produce melamine. Melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid it can cause fatal kidney stones.

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