China: Milk factory blamed for baby deaths
Doctored baby milk has killed two children and poisoned hundreds more in China, it emerged today.
Two brothers have been arrested for adding chemicals to the powdered formula to bulk it out.
The men, who ran a milk collection centre in Hebei province, are accused of using melamine, a chemical used in plastics, to pass quality tests after water was added to increase the milk’s volume.
China’s Health Ministry today said two babies died from drinking the contaminated powder and 1,253 were taken ill.
Vice Health Minister Ma Xiaowei said 913 of the children were only slightly affected but 340 remained in hospital and 53 were considered especially severe.
The company that produced the infant formula, Sanlu Group, is China’s biggest producer of powdered milk and is part-owned by a New Zealand dairy farmers’ co-operative, Fonterra.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said today that she had learned of the problem on September 5 and convened a meeting of senior ministers three days later at which she ordered officials to directly inform senior authorities in Beijing, at a time when provincial Chinese officials appeared to be dragging their feet in ordering a recall.
“We were the whistleblowers and they leapt in and ensured there was action on the ground,” she said.
“At a local level ... I think the first inclination was to try and put a towel over it and deal with it without an official recall,” she said.
Fonterra, the world’s biggest milk trader, said it had urged Sanlu to recall the product as early as six weeks ago but Sanlu did not act until last Thursday.
Chinese officials have defended their response to the country’s latest product safety disaster but blamed Sanlu for delays in warning the public.
Inspectors will check the country’s 175 baby milk food factories and their findings will be released within two days, Li said.
The incident is an embarrassing failure for China’s product safety system, which was overhauled in an attempt to restore consumer confidence after a string of recalls and warnings abroad over tainted toothpaste, faulty tyres and other goods.
The milk scandal is especially damaging because it involves a major Chinese food company and the government expects such companies to act as industry role models for safety and quality.
Shoddy and fake goods are common in China, and children, hospital patients and others have been killed or injured before by tainted or fake milk, medicines, drink and other products.
