Melamine Poisoning in Chinese Milk Production - Research Paper Example

Melamine poisoning in Chinese milk production Food poisoning is growing day by day because of the increased influence of commercialization in every segment of human life. The thirst for making profit can be seen everywhere and that also without keeping the basic principles of business or ethics. It is difficult for a producer or manufacturer to make profit if its products failed to overcome a minimum period of time in the market. But in its natural form many of the food products may not last more time in the market even if it is kept in the freezers. For example, many of the fish sellers use some chemicals to keep the fish fresh for longer period. They are not much bother about the safety of the consumers. “China milk poisoning incidents make everyone afraid to look at the daily news report. Every day, the reports are changing. No one can clearly tell us what to eat and not to eat” (Smsasad). Even in baby food items product manufacturers are using some harmful chemicals in order to keep the baby foods secure for a longer period and also to make it tastier. China is one country which keeps no ethics or morality in business practices. They are producing in bulk without bothering much about the quality of their products in order to compete effectively in the market. Even in baby milk, manufactured by the Chinese business people, many of the harmful chemical ingredients were found recently. In one of the most controversial incidents in recent times, increased amount of melamine has been found in baby products produced in China which resulted in severe health problems to the infants. Melamine is a basic organic chemical intermediate, with chemical formula C3H6N6. It is commonly produced from urea, and contains 66 percent nitrogen by mass. Nitrogen is a very important building stone of all living beings. The element is an essential ingredient of proteins, which make up most of the human body that isn’t bone or water. As such, making nitrogen measurement is a common practice for protein content estimation. The Kjeldahl and Dumas testing methods are the standard tests used in the food industry for measuring total nitrogen in crude protein content while they can be misguided by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine (Milk Poison Could Come From Melamine Scrap) Even though, melamine has much other industrial use, it is never adviced to use with food items. The detection of melamine in Chinese infant milk products has created many concerns about the safety of using Chinese food items. This paper briefly analyses the Melamine poisoning in Chinese milk production. Melamine contains 66% nitrogen by mass. It is formed in the body of some mammals through some natural or biological process. It is used widely to produce thermosetting plastics. Thermosetting plastics can be used to produce cleaning products, melamine foams, etc. it can also be used as a fertilizer in agriculture in order to increase the agricultural yields. Even though it is useful for making industrial products and to increase the agricultural yields, it is highly dangerous to the health if swallowed inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure of Melamine may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Moreover, Eye, skin and respiratory irritation can also occur if melamine exposure was severe. The most important nutrient in milk is protein. And Melamine has the same protein that contains "NITROGEN". Adding Melamine in milk reduces milk content and it is cheaper then milk so it lowers capitalization. It can give the business man more profit. Below is Melamine, doesnt it look like milk ?! it doesnt have any smell, so cannot be detected (Smsasad). Chinese milk food producers are adding melamine to milk in order to maximize their profits. The major advantage of adding melamine to milk is that the milk food manufactures can double their profits. It is difficult for a layman to find out what is substituted for protein in the milk products they purchased for their children. Poor infants forced to take the contaminated food which is given to them with love and care by their parents. Form a single bottle of actual milk, the milk product manufacturers can make three or four bottles of milk by adding melamine as a substitute. Only in the chemical lab examination such contamination can be discovered. No c0onsumers will suspect the food items they were purchased unless they feel any immediate problems with that. The melamine contaminated Chinese milk products are affecting the kidney and the symptoms of kidney diseases may not be visible immediately after using the contaminated milk products. Melamine remains inside the kidney. It forms into stones blocking the tubes. Pain will be eminent and person cannot urinate. Kidney will then swell. Although surgery can remove the stones, but it will cause irreversible kidney damage. It can lead to loss of kidney function and will require kidney dialysis or lead to death because of uremia (Smsasad). Melamine contaminated milk can affect the infants in many ways. Although kidney stones formed out of the contaminated milk usage can be removed surgically, it is difficult to keep the health of the kidney intact after the surgery, especially at such a lower age. Kidney failures occurred at a lower age is difficult to treat. Dialysis is the only way to clean the contaminated blood of the children who consumed the melamine milk. Dialysis is a process of "blood washing". Dialysis helps a person to take out his impure or contaminated blood, filter it and then redeposit it. It is performed with the help of sophisticated machineries and highly expensive. An infant who is forced to take depend dialysis for sustaining his life may not survive longer period because of the risks and side effects involved in the process. Cancer and respiratory problems are other major health problems associated with melamine exposure. Medical science has failed to find out the exact reasons or treatment options for cancer yet even though, it made some hypothesizes. But one thing is quiet sure to medical science that the food items we are taking have a major role in causing cancer to us. Powerful chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides are used for increasing the agricultural yields which results in increased contents of poisons even in the naturally produced food items. For example, in order to produce more milk from the cattle, many of the dairy farmers give hormones and other harmful ingredients to the cattle. The milk given by the cattle which is taking contaminated food will definitely contain increased amount of toxic ingredients. Along with that, the milk product producers add more toxic ingredients such as melamine in order to maximize their profits. In short, lot of poisons enters in to the milk products at various stages of its production which is causing severe health problems at present. According to Time report 16 September 2008, “On September 17, Chinese Health Ministry authorities announced that over 6200 babies had fallen ill, many developing kidney stones, from drinking milk made from toxic powder. At least three have died, and more than 50 remain in serious condition. Officials have said the number of victims could climb, the China Daily reported. Chinese authorities say the milk powder, produced by Chinese dairy giant Sanlu Group, was contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in making plastics. Melamine has been illegally added to food products in China to boost their apparent protein content.” The company started recalling its product on 11 September 2008, a too little, too late to save those who have died and countless others who will suffer kidney problems now or in the future. It was suspected that the company has received complaints about their milk in December 2007 (Melamine Poisoning in Children) Many people believe that the infant deaths caused in China due to the contaminated milk food items are more than what is reported by China. By November 2008 China reported that an estimated 300,000 victims of contaminated milk usages. But the actual figure could be even bigger than that. China will never give the actual figures to the external world because of tight censoring on the media. The communist administration is very much afraid of another agitation from the public which may harm their political interests. Moreover, they know very well that the outsiders are waiting for an opportunity to destabilize the communist administration in China. Under such circumstances, China will never give the actual casualties with respect to the food poisoning in their country. Moreover, Chinese products including the baby foods are selling all over the world. Any reports with respect to the contamination may adversely affect their business interests. In short, the actual casualties which might have happened in China as a result of the melamine contaminated food items or baby foods could be even bigger than the one reported. The melamine contaminated baby food scandal broke on 16 July 2008 in China, when sixteen infants were diagnosed with kidney stones. All these infants had taken baby foods produced by a particular manufacturer which forced the authorities to check the food products for finding out the reasons of the kidney stones. After the initial government inspections, it is concluded that the same problem existed in products from 21 other companies also. The melamine contaminated baby food scandal raised many concerns with respect to the safety of the food items. At the same time, it also points towards the political corruption in China and dangers in using Chinese products blindly. China does not value the human life very much. In fact they are trying to reduce the population. In fact having more than one child is a crime in China. It is pathetic to see that many of the Chinese parents, who forced to avoid further conception because of tight governmental control, lost their only one baby because of the contaminated baby food usages. Even though, a number of criminal prosecutions occurred with respect to this case, nobody believes that China may enforce more control over their food production and export. The prosecutions and punishments are simply used to make the external world believe that the Chinese products may not be harmful anymore. WHO (world health organization) described the above food scandal as one of the largest food safety scandal happened in the recent years. In order to make short term benefits, China is not taking much care about the safety of the all important human life on earth. May of the people all over the world believe that the above scandal was not an isolated accident, but a large-scale intentional activity to deceive consumers for short-term profits. Even now the Chinese authorities are reporting the seizure of melamine-contaminated dairy product in some provinces, which clearly shows that the offers made by China to the external world were not met yet. Even though the Chinese authorities are arguing that the contamination is food products came down drastically, still the external world is not considering such arguments seriously. Currently, China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of melamine, while its domestic melamine consumption is growing by around 10 percent per year, according to DMS’s melamine industry update on June 2007. In 2007 China’s melamine production capacity was more than 600,000 tons a year, and actual output of melamine about 400,000 tons a year. Ongoing growth in domestic demand, combined with lower production capabilities has resulted in a very tight melamine supply and demand in China since the fourth quarter in 2007, according to DMS’s melamine industry update on March 2008. China Chemical Network has listed melamine’s wholesale price between 11,000 and 11,800 yuan (US$1,614 to $1,731) a ton, as of May 31. The higher end exceeded 12,000 yuan ($1,761). Even products with a lower purity that are extracted from crude materials by small companies sell for 8,000 yuan ($1,174) per ton (Milk Poison Could Come From Melamine Scrap) The statistics given above clearly shows the importance of melamine production for the growth of Chinese economy. Being one of the largest producers of melamine, China cannot avoid the revenue from melamine production. Because of the over production, melamine is a cheap material available in China. Even though, China is producing many useful consumer commodities with the help of melamine, it is not sufficient enough to use up the entire melamine produced in the country. In short, the excessive availability and cheaper price, forced the milk product producers to use melamine as a substitute to protein while making the milk products for infants. According to some reports, contaminated baby formula and milk powder has been distributed even countries like Britain and the United States. The economies of these countries are weak at present which forced the consumers to buy products of cheaper price raterh than going for the high quality higher price products. Chinese manufacturers have exploited such weakness of the American and the British people and sold millions of tons of food items in America and Britain. Made in China slogan is watched suspiciously by the people all over the world because of the following reasons. China has a long history of scandals and incidents involving tainted food and pharmaceuticals. Likewise, hardly a week goes by that we don’t see another story of children’s toys or baby bibs containing high levels of lead or other deadly substances. The problem is not confined to products that are clearly marked as being “Made in China” as contaminated raw ingredients are often shipped in bulk to manufacturers on other continents including in North America and Europe. When another story breaks, the Chinese authorities exhibit a standard pattern of response that is slowly and reluctantly escalated because of; a/Concealment of the problem by manufacturers, then government. b/ Denial by government. c/ Acknowledgment by government that there was a minor problem that was only local in scope. d/ Where there are many deaths or extensive foreign news coverage, government makes a huge show of product recalls and announces an investigation. New inspection methods and routines are also announced. e/ A “guilty” manufacturer or plant manager is quickly found, arrested and blamed for the event. He is usually executed within months, allowing the government to say “There. Fixed that. No more problem with contaminated food.”f/ Everything goes back to normal until a month later when the next contaminated food or other health-related scandal erupts(More Melamine Poisoned Chinese Food: Hundreds, Maybe Thousands Of Babies Seriously Ill – Deaths Starting) Works Cited 1. “Melamine Poisoning in Children”. 2008. Web. 13 December 2010. 2. “Milk Poison Could Come From Melamine Scrap”. 2008. Web. 13 December 2010. 3. “More Melamine Poisoned Chinese Food: Hundreds, Maybe Thousands Of Babies Seriously Ill – Deaths Starting”. 2008. Web. 13 December 2010. 4. Smsasad. “Melamine: Poisoned Milk”. Web. 13 December 2010. Read More