Head of watchdog resigns as number of babies in hospital from tainted milk rises to 13,000

Guardian 23rd September 2008

Almost 13,000 Chinese babies are in hospital after consuming tainted baby milk, and a further 40,000-plus have been treated, in a scandal which yesterday led to the resignation of the head of the country's quality watchdog, according to state media.

The scandal, which began when dozens of babies suffered kidney stones and even kidney failure after drinking a popular brand that contained the chemical melamine, has since spread to more than 20 companies and affected products including fresh milk, yoghurt and ice-cream.

Countries across Asia are checking imported dairy products from China. Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have already banned or recalled a variety of milk products. Taiwan banned all mainland dairy products on Sunday. In Hong Kong Nestlé, the world's largest food company, said it had recalled a UHT pure milk product after a local food watchdog discovered samples containing a tiny amount of the chemical melamine.

Worried Hong Kong parents also took their children for health checks, after the government announced that a three-year-old girl who had drunk a melamine-laced milk product had a kidney stone. She did not show serious symptoms and was discharged without medication or surgery.

The Japanese government has asked 90,000 companies to check whether imports have been contaminated with melamine, and the country's Marudai Food Co has withdrawn buns made with milk supplied by one of the Chinese companies involved, Yili Industrial Group.

In China anxious parents are queueing at hospitals to have their babies examined. The government has promised free treatment, but some families are concerned about costs and long-term complications.

Four infants are believed to have died from the toxic formula and 104 are in serious condition, the health ministry said. It added that 1,500 had already left hospital and nearly 40,000 with milder symptoms had received clinical treatment and advice before going home. The ministry had previously reported that 6,200 children were ill, with 1,300 in hospital. It did not explain the sharp rise in numbers.

The head of China's quality watchdog, Li Changjiang, stepped down with the approval of the cabinet, the state news agency Xinhua reported. His agency is responsible for ensuring that China's food supply chain is safe.

Premier Wen Jiabao threatened harsh punishment for culprits as he toured hospitals in Beijing. "Although the ordinary people are very understanding, as the government we feel very guilty," he said, according to Xinhua. "This event is a warning for all food safety."

The head of Sanlu, the company at the heart of the baby milk scandal, has already been arrested after being sacked. Several farmers have also been held.

City officials in Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, were also sacked, with a senior provincial official saying they knew of the problem for over a month without taking action - only telling Beijing once the Olympics were over.

Melamine, often used to make plastics, artificially boosts apparent protein levels in tests. That creates an incentive for farmers producing substandard milk to add the substance.

China's food quality watchdog has said it found melamine in nearly 10% of milk and drinking yoghurt samples from three dairy companies, Mengniu, Yili and the Bright group.

To date, no illnesses have been reported from melamine in other dairy products. Tests on infant formula from other producers also found that while melamine was present in batches from a fifth of China's dairy producers, the levels were far lower than in the case of Sanlu.

But fear has spread rapidly among consumers, and the Chinese ministry of agriculture said despairing farmers were dumping milk and killing cattle after companies stopped buying their supplies. It promised subsidies to help struggling cattle farmers.

Starbucks in China has started serving soya milk rather than dairy with its coffee.

The government promised to tighten its safety regime after a number of product scandals which exposed corruption, bureaucratic inertia and cost-cutting producers.

But China's dairy producers face a crisis of confidence that will only be cured by strong action, said Lao Bing, manager of a Shanghai-based dairy investment company.

"Consumers will start rebuying in a month or two if they feel sure the government is undertaking a vigorous clean-up," he told Reuters. "Exports will take longer. This will have a major impact."