Mommy alert: Melamine in baby formula

(8 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

My oldest cat, Maus, is dying of kidney failure.  Maus is 14, and our veterinarian tells me that they see this a lot in older cats, most often accompanied by anemia, which ia another problem Maus has to deal with. But I can’t help but wonder, was the kidney failure caused by something he ate?   Did we inadvertantly give him cat food that was tainted with melamine?  When we learned that pets were dying from their food, we checked the list to see if we were harming our babies, and we did not find our brand there.

But what does that mean?  Stores purchase cat food from cat food companies and slap their own label on the cans–for a price, of course.  I think we made a big, mistaken assumption about the safety of our unlisted brand that we’re paying for now.  

Today, I read this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. health officials have uncovered trace amounts of the chemical melamine in one sample of infant formula sold in the United States, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The amount found in the sample was no cause for concern, said FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said. “There’s no basis for concern because we’re talking about trace levels that are so low … that there’s absolutely no risk,” she told Reuters.

Melamine-tainted formula was found earlier this year in China, where thousands of children fell ill and several died.

http://www.reuters.com/article…

So, is this baby formula, sold in the U.S., imported from China like the cat food was purported to be?  It will probably be easier to research that question when they tell us which baby formula brand they’re talking about!

I found half an answer at News Daily:

that was not the case with the U.S. infant formula, which in September was determined not to be made with any Chinese ingredients…

Leon declined to name the manufacturer of the sample found to contain melamine.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stori…

I kind of think it’s probably Nestle http://www.reuters.com/article…

“There’s no basis for concern because we’re talking about trace levels that are so low … that there’s absolutely no risk,”

A statement like this does not assure me.  According to Banned Foods Net

…trace amounts of melamine are safe in most foods, except for baby formula.

http://bannedfoods.net/tag/bab…

Baby formula contaminated with melamine.  I shudder to think what impact this has had on third world nations.  (I haven’t bought Nestle’s products for years because of their nefarious practices.)  http://www.infactcanada.ca/Nes…

I suspect that we have not heard the last of melamine in the food chain.  Consider this:

Given the pervasiveness of melamine, it’s always possible that trace elements will end up in food. The FDA thus sets the legal limit for melamine in food at 2.5 parts per million. This amount is indeed minuscule, a couple of sand grains in an expanse of desert that pose no real threat to public health. Moreover, the 2.5 parts per million figure is calculated for a person weighing 132 pounds – a cautious benchmark given that the average adult weighs 150 to 180 pounds.

But these figures obscure more than they reveal. First, while adults eat about one-fortieth of their weight every day, toddlers consume closer to one-tenth. Although scientists haven’t measured the differential impact of melamine on infants versus adults, it’s likely that this intensified ratio would at least double (if not quadruple) the impact of legal levels of melamine on toddlers.

This doubled exposure might not land a child in the hospital, but it could certainly contribute to the long-term kidney and liver problems that we know are caused by chronic exposure to melamine.

International Herald Tribune:  http://www.iht.com/articles/20…

My family is being poisoned!  Melamine in food–the FDA has defined a legally allowed amount!  Long-term kidney and liver problems–we’re talking about lasting effects on people now!  It’s in baby food; it’s in cat food; it’s in cattle feed; and, no doubt, it’s in us. Who profits from this?

You couldn’t pay me to bring a child into this world.