Melamine scare exposes problems

This summer, the world's attention was focused on China as the nation prepared to host the world's largest sporting event ?- the Olympics. But amidst the fanfare and excitement, tragedy struck. On July 16, 2008, 16 infants in China's Gansu province were diagnosed as having kidney stones as a result of drinking milk that was contaminated with the toxic chemical melamine. Four of them died.

Melamine is an organic base which, when properly combined with chemical resins, exhibits interesting properties, including being fire retardant. Thus, it has proven to be useful for many industrial uses such as making plastics and concretes. However, melamine can be toxic to humans if it is ingested in large quantities and can cause problems such as kidney stones or kidney malfunction.

When melamine is mixed in solution, it causes an apparent increase in the protein content of the mixture; as a result, it was once considered a cheap alternative to provide protein-rich meals for cattle. However, in Europe and the U.S., government restrictions now ban the use of the substance in production of any food, due to the extent of its toxicity.

But in China, there are no government regulations on melamine. Many infant formula producers - a CNN article quoted 21 of China's largest milk firms - have used melamine in their products, in an attempt to make cheaper milk that still passes tests for sufficient protein levels. However, the consequences of these companies' actions far outweigh the small benefit in the cost-reduction they may receive.

According to data procured by CNN and other news media, over 50,000 infants in China have acquired an illness directly due to the melamine in infant milk. Because of the severe extent of their illness, 13,000 of them have been hospitalized.

These morbid injuries are tragedy enough, but what's worse is that there is the potential for many more problems. Scientists found that the melamine contamination spread from just the infant milk to other dairy, poultry and egg products. China is a major global producer of these items, which means that there may be toxic melamine in such foods around the world.

The names of familiar companies appear in the list of those who import and/or manufacture milk powders from China: Lipton tea, Cadbury chocolate and even coffee giant Starbucks. All three of these corporations, among many others, have withdrawn their products after the scare that they may have been contaminated. In addition, on Nov. 12, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) placed an import ban on "products that contain milk or milk-derived products" from China.

This incident shows the necessity of having stricter governmental regulations on producers throughout the world. Most developing nations do have such rules in place and enforced; in Europe, if a product contains more than a safe level of melamine, the entire batch of it is immediately destroyed.

Likewise, in the United States, the FDA will not approve the sale of any product if it has more than 2.5 parts per million of melamine. Chinese manufacturers are able to use toxins like melamine because no one is regulating how they fabricate their products.

The Chinese government and the milk manufacturers did make a formal apology to the citizens of China and to the world, but this policy was made after the fact. Within the Chinese public, many are now afraid to purchase the cheaper, domestic milk for fear of poisoning.

At the end of September, the Chinese government created a new stricter inspection program to "carry out forceful measures to deal with the chemical contamination." This new program is but a first step, and we must wait and hope that the Chinese government will ensure that it is fully enforced.

Above all, a government's role is to protect its citizens from harm, and this includes protecting from the dangers of toxic chemicals in their own domestic food market. But in the 21st century, we need to do more than just ensure that our food supply is safely produced. We live in a global economy in which every country imports thousands and thousands of products from other countries because it is more cost effective and beneficial to all parties involved.

This means that the world as a whole must place stringent regulations upon its manufacturers. If incidents such as the melamine scandal continue to occur and further bans are placed on imports and exports, contamination of products could be the least of our worries. The global economy and trust in foreign produce is compromised, and the world as a whole could suffer.

Saumya Gurbani is a freshman chemical engineering major from Baroda, India.