CHINA MELAMINE SCANDAL

Melamine in Milk?

What is it? Why do they adulterate milk with melamine in China? Are we at risk too?

Melamine, a relatively heavy, white solid with a high melting point and only slightly soluble in water, is an organic (heterocyclic aromatic) six-sided-ring-compound (formula: C3H6 N6) with three nitrogen atoms replacing three carbons alternately in the ring. Three amine groups (NH2) are attached to the ring at the carbon positions. The formal chemical name of melamine is: cyanourotriamine. It should be noted here that melamine is not related to the familiar substances melanin (a skin pigment) and melatonin (a common hormone in mammals).

In solution, melamine acts as a chemical base reacting with acids to form salts. In industry, this substance is combined with formaldehyde to form a melamine resin, a strong (thermosetting) plastic, and a melamine foam. Melamine is common in industry and may end up as countertops, dry-eraser boards, fabrics, glues, house-wares, packaging, flame retardants and as a strengthener in cement. An important use of this substance is as an admixture to concrete (as sulfonated melamine formaldehyde) which increases the fluidity and slows the hardening of concrete, while adding great mechanical strength to the mix. It is this latter use (in construction) which probably makes it a cheap, easily available substance in China where construction activity is widespread.

The production of melamine in China has grown rapidly over the last decade or so. Unfortunately its production continued even during economic declines so need has declined while production continued unabated, resulting in a melamine “glut” on the Chinese market. Its use as an adulterant in other applications is probably a result of this ready availability and low cost.

By itself melamine is relatively non-toxic white substance. It is however, often associated with cyanuric acid in waste-water. Melamine and cyanuric acid often occur together as contaminants. It is the reaction of cyanuric acid and melamine which can produce an insoluble crystalline salt: melamine cyanurate. When these two substances are ingested or inhaled a chemical reaction may produce melamine cyanurate crystals (“stones”) in the victim’s kidneys, resulting in fatal renal failure.

Studies on animals indicate that ingestion of melamine can lead to kidney and bladder stones and bladder cancer. A 1953 study of dogs fed a diet laced with (3% by wt?) melamine resulted in changes in urine production, as well as evidences of blood, protein and melamine crystals in the urine. Since melamine cyanurate crystals do not dissolve easily, they remain in the bladder or kidneys and lead to long term chronic conditions including bladder and kidney cancer.

In 2007 melamine was detected in pet food imported from China. The melamine, in a white granular form was found as a contaminant among similarly appearing wheat-gluten a component in the pet food. Why add melamine to pet food? It is a cheap (or cost free) additive which increases the profit margin of the producer. Melamine which has a high in nitrogen content (C3N6H6) is recorded as “protein” on the relatively unsophisticated chemical procedures used to test pet foods. Melamine superficially mimics proteins when these simple tests measure only the amount of nitrogen present. Proteins are of course complex organic molecules composed in part of nitrogen compounds called amino acids. Thus the pet food laced with melamine was cheaper to produce than pet food with real wheat gluten-- a more expensive component. Many dogs were sickened and an unknown number died as a result.

A less well known result of this scandal was that the melamine laced wheat gluten was used in both chicken and pig feeds. See: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/006027.html and chickens http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070502072434.htm

In a similar but less well known case in 2007 melamine was purposely added to fish-food as a binder by USA suppliers located in Ohio and Colorado. These materials were recalled after the pet food scandal broke out. What effects the fish-foods laced with melamine had on public health are unknown. The fish food was used in commercial hatcheries for food production as in salmon, catfish or tilapia producers. What effects these would have on humans ingesting such tainted fish are unknown. However for Alaska hatcheries See: http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/news/issues/docs/2007/melamine_briefing.pdf

Well now that you know how greed, a cheap product, and lack of sufficient government oversight in China caused the melamine scandal that remains a threat to our health, simply substitute “sub prime mortgages” for melamine, and USA for China and you will better understand our economic distress at present.

In September 2008, the Sanlu Milk company in China was forced to recall 10,000 tons of milk, milk powder and infant formula which was tainted with melamine. Fifty-three thousand infants were sickened and nearly 13,000 were hospitalized. There were four confirmed deaths due to acute renal failure. Kidney stones as large as 1 cm (nearly ½ inch) diameter were found in infant kidneys. Melamine may have been added to the milk by unscrupulous producers who after diluting the milk with water used melamine to boost the nitrogen component and thus fool government regulations which approximate milk protein levels by measuring nitrogen levels.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine “