Doctors in Gansu Province, in northwestern China, told the Xinhua news agency this week that "fake milk powder" from one brand could have been responsible for kidney stones developing in 14 patients, all infants under 11 months.
Parents of the affected babies, mostly from poor and remote areas, said they had bought the powder much more cheaply than usual, Xinhua said.
Gansu health authorities were aware of the problem as early as July 16, after a local hospital reported seeing 16 babies with kidney stones who had all drunk the same brand of formula, Xinhua said, without explaining the delay in disclosure.
Dozens of other cases of babies developing kidney stones had been reported in Gansu this year, after none was reported in 2006 and 2007. It was unclear whether they had drunk the same brand of milk formula.
Cases of babies developing kidney stones had since emerged in two other hospitals in Gansu and also in Jiangsu, Shandong, Hunan, Anhui, Ningxia and Shaanxi, Xinhua said.
A Sanlu Group spokesman surnamed Cui said the milk powder may have been mislabelled and that "someone" might be counterfeiting their product, Xinhua said.
Sanlu Group, based in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, is partly owned by New Zealand dairy export giant Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd. In a statement carried by the New Zealand Press Association, Fonterra said its Chinese partner was moving to ensure its products were safe.
Sanlu has previously been involved in quality scandals. Authorities in the northern port city of Tianjin seized hundreds of cases of mislabelled Sanlu-brand yoghurt in 2005.
Kidney stones are small, solid masses that form when salts or minerals normally found in urine crystallise inside the kidney.
If they become large enough, they can move out of the kidney, cause infection and lead to permanent kidney damage.
In 2004, at least 13 babies in eastern Anhui province died after drinking fake milk powder that investigators later found had no nutritional value, a scandal that rocked the country and triggered widespread investigations into food and health safety.
More than 170 other babies, most raised in rural areas of Anhui, suffered from symptoms including malnutrition, swollen heads and stunted growth.
Sanlu has since aknowledged that some of its milk powder was contaminated by the chemical melamine, which can cause kidney stones, the ministry said.
Melamine is a chemical used in making plastics, glue and other products.
"This was caused by dairy farmers illegally adding melamine to the milk to raise the protein content," the China News Service quoted Sanlu saying.
Baby with head swollen after drinking milk formula that has almost no nutrition.
I ever read before about fake oil, soya sauce or whatever stuff they make in China. But milk powder??
I hope whoever made that don't ever have kids of their own lor....
Look at the small little babies, they are so damn cute lah. How can anyone with a heart bear to hurt them? Somemore even if they recover from it, I don't think their health would be that great anymore. All thanks to the bastards who created this, just to earn a few bucks.
And even worse was, this had happened before, years ago. And the babies then even had their head swollen. So bad was it that they had to accept injections on the head. No kidding. Can you imagine the kind of pain this little ones are going through?? Just when they just came into this world not long ago.
Their parents weren't very well-off. Thus if there is a cheaper alternative for milk powder they would definitely choose that. Who could have guessed it was poison for their babies? Luckily we're staying in Singapore, where I don't think anything like this would happen.
The company who produced the milk formula, Sanlu, is even trying to shed their responsibilities lor.
One minute say, maybe someone counterfeit their milk powder. Another minute say its because dairy farmers add chemical inside.
Hello, don't you check your milk powders??? Don't tell me you just blindly pack and pack everything and send out, assuming everything is fine. I'm not saying checking all, but maybe out of that batch that you pack into tins you can test a bit right? And please lor, if people really counterfeit your products, then those supermarkets or whatever stall selling would kena right? Definitely they order from your company then send from your company then they will accept de ma...
I really don't understand these people's thinking. Too crazy over money?? Maybe. But come on, have a heart. What if it was your child?
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