I'll have the Melamine Special, please ***Must Read***

[ThingsGottaChange]

http://www.itchmo.com/read/melamine-spiking-in-food-widespread-for-years_20070429

And we wondered how it could get any worse...

[kurth]

1. This is a 9/11 from China

Fake baby milk formulas, soy sauce made from human hair, cuttlefish soaked in calligraphy ink, eels fed contraceptive pills, etc., etc.

What is the FDA waiting for?

[Robbien]

6. What makes you think it is only done in China

Now that we find out it is profitable to put the melamine in with foodstuffs, why do you believe only China is doing it?

With our lax regulations, what is to say we do not do it ourselves?

[AZBlue]

10. I'd bet money it's not just China...and it's not just melamine.

[whistle]

2. It has already happened, people have injested melamine tained foods

...

<snip>
April 29, 2007, 12:06AM
Tainted pet food entered human food chain, officials say
45 people in California ingested pork from hogs that ate a chemical used to produce plastics

By STEPHEN J. HEDGES and MARY ANN FERGUS
Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON — The tainted pet food scare, which has swelled into a serious crisis for animal lovers, now has spread to humans.

California officials have revealed that the contamination got into the food chain: About 45 state residents ate pork from hogs that consumed animal feed laced with melamine from China. Melamine is used to make plastics, but it also artificially boosts the protein level — and thus the price — of the glutens that go into food.

It was already fatal for some pets: 17 cats and dogs are confirmed dead, more have likely died without being reported, thousands have suffered kidney problems, and 57 brands of cat food and 83 of dog food have been recalled. On top of that, roughly 6,000 hogs will be destroyed because they ate tainted feed.

The effects of melamine on people are thought to be minimal, but no one really knows.

What last month was a limited recall of canned pet food is on the verge of becoming a full-fledged public health scare.

The Food and Drug Administration is struggling to catch up with the implications of the spread of melamine-contaminated glutens from China to hogs, and the human food chain. The FDA is trying to get its investigators into China, where a skeptical government only last week assented to investigators' visa requests.
<MORE>

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4758398.html

<also see>

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.food29apr29,0,1355554.story?coll=bal-health-headlines

[DawnIsis]

3. I realized the FDA knew about this as soon as the story broke and they admitted knowing melamine

could be used to spike protein levels. If they knew then why weren't they testing for it??????????????????????

Someone needs to perform some independent tests NOW. Especially the baby food and if melamine is detected in the food chain the FDA needs to be sued by the American people.

[Rex]

14. The FDA is an agency in name only, haven't you been watching

its dismantling by the Bush Administration? Been going on for years now. Just finally reached the critical point and I'm sure nothing will be done about it until thousands (oh wait, Katrina) millions of us are dying from kidney failure. Hell, they will blame it on the terrorists!

Just watch and see.

[WiseButAngrySara]

4. Excerpts. There was speculation about this just weeks ago...

Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into melamine, which is used to create plastics and fertilizer.

But the leftover melamine scrap, small acorn-sized chunks of white rock, is then being sold to local entrepreneurs, who say they secretly mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance the protein level.

“It just saves money,” says a manager at an animal feed factory here. “Melamine scrap is added to animal feed to boost the protein level.”

The practice is widespread in China. For years animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by blending the powder into feed with little regulatory supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” says Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”

Most local feed companies do not admit that they use melamine. But last Friday here in Zhangqiu, a fast-growing industrial city southeast of Beijing, a pair of animal feed producers explained in great detail how they purchase low-grade wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins and then mix in small portions of nitrogen-rich melamine, whose chemical properties give a bag of animal feed an inflated protein level under standard tests.

“If you add it in small quantities, it won’t hurt the animals,” said one animal feed entrepreneur whose name is being withheld to protect him from prosecution.

The man - who works in a small animal feed operation that consists of a handful of storage and mixing areas - said he has mixed melamine into animal feed for years.

[WiseButAngrySara]

5. Why does the M$M keep stating "more than A DOZEN dogs

have been affected" when it's in the hundreds and likely thousands?

:kick: and Rec for this important and horrifying news article.

[Shallah Kali]

16. minimize minimize minimize. Just like they keep saying only a dozen cats and dogs have died.

In CA alone hundreds of hogs have to be effected from the articles quoted in this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=767375&mesg_id=775902

Chemical found in state hogs

April 20, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/158442.html

The farm sells to both private individuals and others whom the state declined to identify, saying it is still investigating what happened to the pork. The state Health Services Department is urging people who bought pigs from the farm not to eat the meat until further notice.

So far, "evidence suggests a minimal health risk" to people who have consumed it, Dr. Mark Horton, the state's public health officer, said in the same press release.


Alert to pork plant customers
State says hogs slaughtered by Bar None of Half Moon Bay may have eaten melamine.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/160086.html

State investigators are warning people who bought pork this month from a custom slaughtering plant -- Bar None of Half Moon Bay -- not to eat it because the hogs may have eaten pet food with melamine, the chemical linked to cat and dog deaths and illnesses nationwide.

Last week, the California Department of Food and Agriculture quarantined American Hog Farm, a 1,500-hog operation in Ceres in Stanislaus County, after learning that animals there had been fed pet food contaminated with melamine starting April 3.

The department began notifying about 100 private customers who bought hogs killed and packaged by American Hog Farm that were fed tainted pet feed.

In addition, state and federal investigators began tracking down live hogs that American sold to four other slaughtering plants between April 3 and 1

[lligrd]

7. Ludicrous That It Has Taken Them So Long To Admit It

Even more ludicrous that food hasn't yet been tested. It was only logical that if it was used in pet food it was also used in our food.

And I already knew this had been going on for years. My dog got extremely sick 2 years ago from eating Menu packets. At the time the vets couldn't figure out why he was so sick. He was bleeding from all his rear orifices. $5000 later he was sent home to recuperate or die. He refused to eat the Menu packets any longer and I found a new brand that he would eat and have stuck to it ever since. This brand has not been affected and his reluctance to eat the recalled brand no doubt allowed him to finally recover and saved his life.

[kurth]

8. Original article deleted by NYT and IHT?

Why?

[gulfcoastliberal]

9. Gee, I wonder too.

Fascinating.

[Donnachaidh]

11. They cannot delete library files

If one is industrious enough, the article can be resurrected.

[bananas]

12. Maybe itchmo will be pulled next

save a copy of that web page on your hard drive.

[Holly_Hobby]

13. Press release from FDA yesterday....

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01620.html

...

At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from these animals is being issued. Testing and the joint investigation continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken.

The assessment that, if there were to be harm to human health, it would be very low, is based on a number of factors, including the dilution of the contaminating melamine and melamine-related compounds from the original rice protein concentrate as it moves through the food system. First it is a partial ingredient in the pet food; second, it is only part of the total feed given to the hogs; third, it is not known to accumulate in the hogs and the hogs excrete melamine in their urine; fourth, even if present in pork, pork is only a small part of the average American diet. Neither FDA nor USDA has uncovered any evidence of harm to the swine from the contaminated feed. In addition to the dilutional factor and the lack of evidence of illnesses in the swine fed the waste pet food, we are not aware of any human illness that has occurred from exposure to melamine or its by-products. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention systems would have limited ability to detect subtle problems due to melamine and melamine-related compounds, no problems have been detected to date. To further evaluate any potential harm to humans, the FDA is developing and implementing further tests and risk assessments based on the toxicity of the compounds and how much of the compounds consumers could be expected to actually consume.

...

NO RECALL. Oh, a little melamine won't hurt. Jesus effin' Christ.

[Shallah Kali]

15. Why aren't they checking the humans who at the pork? Would it kill the FDA to take a urine sample

from the humans to see if THEY are excreting melamine, cyanuric acid, amilorine and/or amiloride like th sick cats and dogs are? Naw take the course of hunting for mad cow - you won't find problems if you carefully avoid looking for 'em!

[livvy]

17. Evening kick for exposure. This needs to be seen. n/t

[SoCalDem]

18. Kidney problems are on the rise in humans too

I wonder if the melamine issue has an effect on the pancreas (diabetes?)...

Maybe the low levels (until now) kept it all under the radar.:grr:

[Gin]

19. went to BJ's today...picked up a bag of Flounder....then I see it was

imported from China....put it back...for christ's sake....we have flounder here in Virginia beach and we have to import it from China????.....then... went to produce department...saw snow peas from Guatemala....tomatoes from Canada & Mexico...I bought grapefruits from Florida....nothing else......oh...and gas at a BP/Amoco station is 3.17 premium....2.93 regular.....bastards.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. to clarify -- melamine does NOT boost protein levels, it gives a FALSE test result.

Protein contains nitrogen. It is responsible for most of the nitrogen in food. Thus, testing the N content should give a good estimate of the protein content. By "salting" the material with a nitrogen-rich -- but NON-NUTRITIVE compound -- the testers are fooled into making a high estimate of the amount of protein present. This is FRAUD, nothing less. It is, however, also a lot more, as it involves adding a potentially harmful chemical to food and risking the health and well-being of thousands, or even millions, of people or animals.

I am apalled that something as simple-minded as a test of total nitrogen content is used as a test, however "quick and dirty", for protein content. It is a non-specific test, hence extremely prone to just this type of tampering.

[marions ghost]

21. If Americans would reject food coming

from foreign sources, it might make the govt realize that we want our basic food to be grown or raised here. And in addition more regulation and inspection is obviously needed. You can't leave this to big business --not when it comes to food or household products regularly consumed... This would be a very effective consumer boycott. This pet food thing has already caused a lot of people I know to start making their own pet food.

What makes me angry is that when you feed food to your family or to your pets, you should have a reasonable assurance that at least the food is not tainted by means that can be controlled, and certainly not deliberately contaminated. You should be able to trust that it is what it says it is on the label, with no surprise ingredients. When you're staring down into a plate of food, and literally incorporating it into your body, this is in many ways an act of faith. You trust the suppliers to be
protecting and contributing to your health. Obviously that sacred trust has been broken.