6 Chinese Infants Died in Milk Crisis
Official Toll Raised; Families Seek Help
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 3, 2008; Page A11
BEIJING, Dec. 2 -- China's Health Ministry has sharply increased the official toll of deaths linked to tainted milk formula, belatedly acknowledging the scale of the country's latest food safety scare as affected families continue to complain that the government is not doing enough for the sick.
Nearly three months after the scandal broke in Hebei province, officials say that six infants died after drinking melamine-laced milk powder and that 294,000 babies were sickened, more than five times the number of children previously said to have been taken ill.
Although central government officials insist they have been open about the scandal since the start, they were slow to respond to warning signs and have been forced to admit that local and propaganda officials acted to cover up the problem. The new numbers, released in an official statement Monday and reported by state news media Tuesday, not only better illustrate the scope of the problem but also help show why so many parents have complained about a lack of proper care.
Many hospitals have told families that there is nothing to be done about small kidney stones but for the patient to go home, rest and drink water. Children sickened by tainted milk from the Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu , the dairy company at the center of the crisis, have been given free testing and care, so hospitals have pressured those with smaller kidney stones to vacate their beds for paying patients, parents and lawyers said.
"Although my 4-month-old son's kidney stone was discharged in October, his uric acid is still abnormal," said Zhang Ge, a housewife who cares for her son at home. "I spent all day online but still can't find any nutritional information to help him. The government should give us guidelines. The only advice doctors give us is drink more water."
Melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics, is harmless in small doses but causes kidney ailments such as stones in children and animals. Farmers and workers at milk collection centers added it to diluted milk to apparently raise its protein level.
Parents began complaining to Sanlu as early as last December, and by June the company knew its products were tainted with melamine, state broadcaster CCTV has reported. Doctors raised the alarm in blogs and online posts and reported their concerns to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. But the quality watchdog, which had exempted Sanlu and several other well-known dairy companies from government inspection, did nothing.
A Chinese journalist frustrated that reports of melamine sickening did not name Sanlu finally identified the company in a Sept. 11 blog on the Tianya.cn Web site. After first issuing denials, Sanlu announced a recall that night.
Health Minister Chen Zhu said last month that China had learned from the experience. Unlike Western countries that have had market economies for hundreds of years, he said, China has been open for only three decades. "Therefore, we need some time to establish a real credibility society. The more the economy develops, the more important oversight and supervision become."
Xu Zhiyong, a legal scholar who is trying to help scores of families sue Sanlu, said Tuesday that no courts had yet accepted any such cases but that the group would try again this month.
"We speak not only for 160 families who entrusted us but for all the victims who suffered from contaminated milk," he said. "This is a much bigger voice than one individual case."
Researcher Liu Liu contributed to this report.
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