China takes all-out effort for sick babies
Sunday, 21 September 2008
BEIJING, Sept 20 (AFP): China's cabinet ordered an all-out effort Saturday to save babies poisoned by contaminated milk powder which has claimed the lives of four infants and sickened thousands more. he State Council said sick babies should be given free medical treatment, ordered more checks on the dairy industry and vowed to punish those responsible for the scandal, the state Xinhua news agency said, quoting a statement.
The government has already announced the arrest of 18 people for their roles in the contamination of milk with the industrial chemical melamine.
Four babies have died and more than 6,000 are ill after drinking tainted infant formula, and the government said this week that regular milk, yoghurt and ice cream were also affected.
The cabinet statement said the companies responsible would be made to foot the bill for treating babies who developed kidney problems after drinking the tainted milk.
"Local authorities should rectify the dairy industry so as to bring a fundamental change to the dairy market and products," it said.
Melamine is normally used to make plastics but has been used to boost the apparent protein content of watered-down milk.
It was revealed this week that people in China have been deliberately diluting milk to cut costs, then adding melamine to make the product appear normal.
The problem came to light last week in China's state-controlled media, but New Zealand Saturday said its embassy in Beijing had known of the problem since mid-August.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra told an embassy official on August 14 that its Chinese partner Sanlu appeared to have received contaminated milk and that there were reports of a small number of sick children, it said.
The embassy advised Fonterra that the Chinese central government would normally be informed by local authorities.
The government has already announced the arrest of 18 people for their roles in the contamination of milk with the industrial chemical melamine.
Four babies have died and more than 6,000 are ill after drinking tainted infant formula, and the government said this week that regular milk, yoghurt and ice cream were also affected.
The cabinet statement said the companies responsible would be made to foot the bill for treating babies who developed kidney problems after drinking the tainted milk.
"Local authorities should rectify the dairy industry so as to bring a fundamental change to the dairy market and products," it said.
Melamine is normally used to make plastics but has been used to boost the apparent protein content of watered-down milk.
It was revealed this week that people in China have been deliberately diluting milk to cut costs, then adding melamine to make the product appear normal.
The problem came to light last week in China's state-controlled media, but New Zealand Saturday said its embassy in Beijing had known of the problem since mid-August.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra told an embassy official on August 14 that its Chinese partner Sanlu appeared to have received contaminated milk and that there were reports of a small number of sick children, it said.
The embassy advised Fonterra that the Chinese central government would normally be informed by local authorities.