Toxic milk: 1000s in hospital

2008-09-22 07:32

Beijing - The number of Chinese infants sick in hospital after drinking tainted milk formula has leapt to nearly 13 000 and Premier Wen Jiabao threatened harsh punishment for culprits in the latest blight on the "made-in-China" brand.

The Health Ministry said the toll of children ill from milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine had risen from a previously announced total of 6 244 - which included many who had left hospital - to 12 892.

Another 39 965 children had "received clinical treatment and advice" before being sent home.

More than 80% of the sick were aged under two. So far, four deaths have been blamed on toxic milk powder causing kidney stones and agonising complications, and 104 children are in a serious condition.

The jump was announced late on Sunday, an escalation in the spreading scandal that has shaken trust in Chinese products again after last year's scares over toxic and shoddy goods from toothpaste and drugs to pet food and toys.

Wen visited hospitals in the national capital in a bid to reassure an anxious public that his government was acting.

"The public is worried, doctors are worried, and we're also worried," he told parents and staff, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

"The most crucial point is that after a clean-up there can be no problems at all with newly produced milk products. If there are fresh problems, they must be even more sternly punished under the law."

China's food quality watchdog has said it found melamine in nearly 10% of milk and drinking yoghurt samples from three major dairy companies: Mengniu Dairy Co, the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group and the Bright group.

By Saturday, Chinese consumers had claimed refunds for 304 tons of dairy products, the China Daily reported.

Nitrogen-rich melamine can be added to watered-down milk to fool quality checks, which often use nitrogen levels to measure protein. The Health Ministry stressed that no cases of illness have been founded related to liquid milk.

But China's dairy producers face a "crisis of confidence" that will need strong government-led steps to overcome, said Lao Bing, manager of a Shanghai-based dairy investment company.

"How long the industry takes to revive will depend on how vigorous those steps are," he said. "Consumers will start rebuying in a month or two if they feel sure the government is undertaking a vigorous clean-up ... Exports will take longer. This will have a major impact."

Panicked parents

Panicked parents have crowded China's hospitals and demanded redress since officials and the Sanlu Group, the country's biggest maker of infant milk powder, disclosed the threat.

Sanlu failed to publicly disclose the problem for at least a month, throughout August when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, officials have said.

The government has promised free treatment for stricken children, but some parents said they worried about costs and long-term complications.

Zhou Zhijun, a mother from south China's Hunan province, said she took her wailing, increasingly thin daughter to hospitals at least three times from June to late August before doctors diagnosed a kidney stone.

"All those visits and checks cost 20 000 yuan, and I still don't know who will pay for that," she said, adding that her 15-month-old baby had drunk Sanlu milk powder. "Also what if there are complications and problems later? Who'll pay for that?"

Other countries and regions have clamped down on China's milk products. Markets that that have banned or recalled these products include Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Even White Rabbit Creamy Candy, a popular Chinese brand of milk sweet, had been contaminated with melamine, Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority warned on Sunday.

Over the weekend a three-year-old Hong Kong girl was found to have a kidney stone after drinking a milk product tainted by melamine, making her the territory's first suspected victim.

Premier Wen said that dairy products that passed safety tests would be labelled so that consumers can "be at ease".

But the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said despairing farmers were dumping milk and killing cattle after companies stopped buying their supplies, according to Xinhua. The ministry promised subsidies to help struggling milk farmers.

- Reuters