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1200 babies now affected by contaminated Sanlu formula milk in China

52 replies

FinallyGotDyson · 16/09/2008 10:15

here

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foxytocin · 17/09/2008 12:45

I am however still amazed at how so called democracies cover up a whole myriad of abuses too evangelina, despite the claims of free press, free speech, blah de blah. Not that I don't agree that the Chinese gov't also did some sort of 'damage control' to their country's image to the detriment of lots of babies on this one.

foxytocin · 17/09/2008 13:00

it just gets worse. sad.

Songbird · 17/09/2008 13:05

Sanlu - not an encouraging name for baby formula! This is horrible, hopefully getting sorted now.

smallwhitecat · 17/09/2008 13:56

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FinallyGotDyson · 17/09/2008 13:58

updates

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FinallyGotDyson · 17/09/2008 14:01

The Government has called a halt to the sale of hte milk.

I hope they have a decent contingency plan for all those mothers feeding their babies formula milk who are going to find it hard to access formula now they've halted sales of all those brands.

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FioFio · 17/09/2008 14:09

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casbie · 17/09/2008 16:00

terrible.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 17/09/2008 16:36

22 brands!!! what a horrible nightmare for parents there

spongebrainbigpants · 17/09/2008 19:19

"I guess it brings home the dangers of formula doesn't it?"

Please don't tell me this affects UK formula with our high food hygiene standards?

StealthPolarBear · 17/09/2008 19:26

acute live failure
poor babies

catweazle · 17/09/2008 20:02

Dreadful that they knew about it and continued to allow it to be sold. Those poor families.

beansprout · 17/09/2008 20:33

It's horrific. What do parents who use formula over there do now? What's plan B if you can't trust what's in the shops?

fruitbowl · 17/09/2008 21:03

maybe use fresh cows milk?

Just seen this:

Two brothers who sold fresh milk used to produce contaminated baby milk powder were arrested by Chinese investigators Monday and could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, the state-run newspaper. Investigators said the brothers confessed to watering down the raw milk and mixing in tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine. They said they did it to recover losses suffered when the factory rejected earlier milk shipments, the paper reported. The brothers are charged with producing and selling toxic and hazardous food, which carries a possible death penalty, the paper said.

FinallyGotDyson · 17/09/2008 21:36

How could they do that? I mean, what possible reasoning could they have for endangering the lives of poor innocent babies?

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pgwithnumber3 · 17/09/2008 21:40

Good God, this totally puts me off (and I am not anti-formula whatsoever) giving formula. The likelihood of this happening over here is probably zero but even so.

Elasticwoman · 17/09/2008 21:53

this is by no means the first case of formula contamination. See The Politics of Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer.

InTheDollshouse · 17/09/2008 22:45

More on recent product recalls of infant formula here (first pdf). Much of it relates to the possibility for contamination of powdered formulas by Enterobacter sakazakii.

onceinalifetime · 17/09/2008 23:19

Haven't read the links so sorry if I've missed something. It's absolutely heartbreaking - I remember when this happened in China a couple of years ago and I cried over it, especially as I was bfing my ds at the time. What I still don't understand is why people haven't switched to bfing and I'm surprised, excuse me if I'm naive on this, why more people don't bf in the first place, particularly in light of the poverty they're in. Is it a cultural issue in China?

hoppybird · 18/09/2008 01:10

This is a tragic story - the number of babies affected is heartbreaking, and the disregard for their health and wellbeing by those responsible for the contamination is beyond belief. and

Onceinalifetime - even if bf is the norm (believe bf rates in China are very high actually) there will still be a substantial number women who will need to use formula for whatever reason (health, social or otherwise). Of course the alternative to bf needs to be as safe as possible. You just cannot realistically expect bf rates in a population to be absolutely 100% for 12 months of every single infants life.

twentypence · 18/09/2008 01:46

Here in NZ the stories are full of our main milk company knowing, and leaving a meeting without a resolution for a recall being made. Even though it's chinese milk the fact that it was a joint venture with a western nation and it still happened is very scary.

It makes the Anchor cows look a whole lot less wholesome really.

Then again we have had lead in baby rice here.

ninedragons · 18/09/2008 03:55

I know someone who is in charge of production of one of the big Western brands of formula in China. Their standards are so high and their monitoring so stringent you would not believe it - it's probably better than most uranium for nuclear power plants is handled.

Sanlu is right at the bottom of the market. Western brands are very expensive (a tin would be about a day's net wages for a clerical job).

This sort of thing, while utterly tragic, does have the beneficial effect of making mothers stick to breastfeeding purely for safety reasons. As hoppybird says, breastfeeding is very much the norm in China and a catastrophe like this is not going to encourage mothers to switch to formula feeding.

If the culprits are caught, they will almost certainly be executed. I believe that that was what happened to the people caught bulking up formula with plaster dust in Anhui province a few years ago. I'm not in favour of the death penalty in principle, but it's hard to muster much sympathy for someone who would do something like this. Though I am mindful that Chinese authorities will be looking for a high-profile show trial to restore confidence, and we will never really know if the people found guilty were totally and solely responsible.

ninedragons · 18/09/2008 04:32

Just as an aside, state support for breastfeeding in China is streets ahead of what I gather it is in the UK.

I had my baby in the private wing of a state hospital in Shanghai. I had a section, and my boobs were half-arsed about producing milk from the outset.

I had a state-funded specialist lactation nurse come to see me three times a day for up to two hours at a time to work on the breastfeeding. I got the massages, the teas, the skin-to-skin, the help with the latch. They kept me in hospital for a week just to get my breastfeeding established (although we never got to 100% BF and I have had to mix-feed).

The government and popular view is that if you can physically breastfeed, you should.

AnnaVissi · 18/09/2008 08:07

People in Sanlu found out in early August there was a problem, but procedure and regulation meant that the message did not across.

Fonterra, needs to do some soul searching, why did they not pay any attention to the growing scandal that started back in February! The rules of the business game in China is different but Fonterra is an international company and should already know that.

The Olympics hindered, no negative stories were allowed to be broadcasted, based on the Olympic Propaganda ban / Media strategy. So it was not allowed to go public.

This has not just effected the Sanlu produt, apparentlely there are other brands names, different label, same product tarred with the same brush.

casbie · 18/09/2008 10:25

i thought bf rates in china had gone down as a direct result of mothers having to go back to work in southern china and therefore leaving babies with granny. for up to a year (!) at a time.

also, with the one-child policy, most of these babies would have been the only hope for the family for future prosperity.

: (

heart-twisting in everyway.

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