Melamine found in body paints. Boxer Lovers Body Pen Set
Add body paint to the list!
A chocolate-flavoured body sex paint has been recalled from Australian shelves as authorities continue to crack down on melamine imports from China.
The paint, Boxer Lovers Body Pen Set,
Melamine found in body paint set
today joined the banned list alongside six other products including Lotte Koala Biscuits, Cadbury Eclairs, Kirin Milk Tea, Orion Tiramisu Italian Cake, Dali Yuan brand First Milk and White Rabbit Creamy Candy.
Melamine, a nitrogen-rich chemical used in the plastics industry, was discovered to be dangerously used by Chinese food manufacturers to give livestock feed and baby milk formulas the appearance of higher protein content.
Products contaminated with melamine, which is normally used in plastic products, have killed at least four children and made about 53,000 ill in mainland China.
The body paint's importer has voluntarily withdrawn the product.
Today's recall follows advice from Canadian and UK authorities whose test results show low levels of melamine in the sex paint product.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said those who had consumed the body paint product were not likely to be affected unless large quantities were consumed.
"Our advice is that consumers shouldn't consume it and if they have, it they should dispose of it safely,'' Ms Buchtmann said.
"It is a very low risk, you'd have to consume a high quantity over a long period of time to become ill.''
Ms Buchtmann said both FSANZ and international authorities' test results had established there was no evidence of melamine contamination of fruit and vegetables grown in China and imported to Australia as previous reports had suggested.
Melamine effects on the body, or what does Melamine do?
What does melamine do in the body?
A Cornell veterinarian told us last year that melamine is not considered to be “a very toxic compound,” but can result in kidney stones and kidney failure especially in small animals. Investigators found crystals made up of melamine and its byproducts in the urine and kidneys of in the dogs and cats that were poisoned last year. Because it formed crystals in the body and was not fully dissolved in urine, the melamine gathered in the kidney, gunking up the organ and forming stones. The pets that died suffered acute kidney failure.
This is what is happening to small children who have ingested melamine.
Who is responsible for this tragedy?
Brief History of
Melamine
By Kate Pickert Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2008
melamine
Sanlu, China’s biggest milk powder producer recalled 700 tons of milk powder after inspectors found the industrial contaminant, melamine in some of its packages.
China Photos / Getty
Melamine, the cheap compound used to bulk up baby formula in China that has sickened at least 1,200 babies across the country and killed at least two so far, once had a much less dubious purpose and, in fact, can be found in some form in most American homes.
Composed of nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, the compound was invented in the 1830s by a German scientist and came into fashion as a material used to make plastics and laminates in the late 1930s. When combined with formaldehyde and exposed to extreme heat, melamine creates a moldable material that, when cooled, is virtually unbreakable and dishwasher-safe.
This made it the durable dishware of choice on some U.S. Navy ships during World War II.
After the war, designer Russel Wright and the St. Louis-based company Branchell, among others, developed molded dinnerware out of melamine, known as Melmac, designing sets under names like "Flair," "Fortiflex" and "Color-Flyte."
Throughout the 1950s, as Americans started buying processed foods and washing machines, clamoring for anything that conveyed "modern," colorful melamine bowls and plates became mainstays in kitchens across the country. Unfortunately, Melmac tableware was prone to scratches and stains and so the dishes fell out of favor by the 1970s, as more resilient household plastics were phased in and families returned to ceramic, china and glass-made dishes.
In the past decade or so, Melmac has become popular again, with collectors and savvy eBay dealers selling Wright and Branchell pieces, and new designers using the material for retro-themed household items.
But as melamine experienced a resurgence in American kitchens, the material — in powdered form — has also come into use by certain unscrupulous food companies as a cheap and abundant filler substance for products ranging from livestock feed to pet food — and now, apparently, to baby formula. In some tests used to determine the nutritional value of a foodstuff, melamine shows up as a protein — so manufacturers can use the compound to make their products appear more nutritious.
Melamine is not toxic, but inside the body it can cause kidney stones and renal failure.
In 2007, material containing melamine — but labeled as wheat gluten and rice protein — was shipped from Chinese manufacturers to pet food companies in the U.S. and elsewhere. After a Canadian pet food company announced it was voluntarily recalling food that was sickening pets, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fielded thousands of similar complaints across the U.S. Soon after, a myriad of pet foods contaminated with the tainted gluten and protein from China were recalled from the market, but not before thousands of pets had died from renal failure.
This month, under pressure from the New Zealand government, which had received complaints that a Chinese manufacturer was ignoring reports that its baby formula was sickening infants, China announced an investigation. Days later, it emerged that more than 1,000 babies were sick, many contracting kidney stones, after consuming melamine-tainted formula. At least two babies have died. On Sept. 13, China said that 19 people have been detained in the ensuing probe. Some critics, however, have suggested China knew about the link between the sick babies and malamine-laced formula months ago — well before the Summer Olympics in Beijing — but did not investigate until external pressure left them no choice.
I will continue to update this as I learn more and find more information for you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Melamine in Food Products Manufactured in China
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News reports and the World Health Organization (WHO) state that tens of thousands of infants in China who consumed infant formula contaminated with melamine are suffering from urinary tract stones, kidney damage, and kidney failure. For more information visit the Food and Drug Administration website.
What is melamine?
Melamine is a synthetic chemical with a variety of industrial uses including the production of resins and foams, cleaning products, fertilizers and pesticides. It does not occur naturally in food.
Why is melamine dangerous in food?
Animal studies have demonstrated that exposure to low levels of melamine produced no observable toxic effects. Exposures to high levels of melamine, or exposures to lower doses of melamine together with certain other chemicals, have caused urinary tract problems in animals. These have included urinary tract and kidney crystal and stone formation, and kidney failure. Exposures of animals to high doses of melamine over long time periods (years) have been associated with cancer of the bladder.
Should I be worried about food products purchased or consumed in the United States?
The United States does not allow melamine to be used as a food ingredient. Most reports of melamine in food products and of health problems related to melamine in food products have centered in China. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working together with local, state, federal, and international agencies to ensure the safety of the American food supply including broadening its domestic and import sampling and testing of milk-derived ingredients and finished food products containing milk, such as candies, desserts, and beverages that could contain these ingredients from Chinese sources. As of October 6, 2008, FDA testing of milk- based products imported into the United States from China had found melamine contamination in only a few products (e.g., White Rabbit Creamy Candies and Mr. Brown’s coffee mixes). For current information on whether food products purchased in the U.S. might pose a concern about melamine, visit the Food and Drug Administration website.
Why are infants particularly affected?
Infants may be more affected than other people because formula is their primary food source and they therefore consume more melamine per unit of body weight than older children and adults who consume a variety of foods.
What should I do if I believe I or my child may already have been exposed to melamine, for example, during travel to China?
See a doctor right away if you or your infant has any of the following symptoms: stomach pain; vomiting; fever; irritability or excessive crying; blood, crystals, or particles in urine; painful urination; little or no urine; swelling of hands, feet, or face.
If I’m pregnant or breastfeeding and think I may have been exposed to melamine, would it be toxic to my baby?
If you are pregnant and have already ingested some of these listed products or you are breastfeeding while ingesting the listed products, discontinue their use. Effects on the unborn child are unknown. Melamine only stays in the body for a few days. The effects on the kidneys of the formula-fed infants in China are thought to result from continuous use of the products containing relatively high concentrations of melamine over many days.
Should my child or I be tested for melamine exposure?
Laboratory tests for melamine in blood serum and urine exist but are still investigational and not yet commercially available. Because many people are exposed to very small, nontoxic amounts of melamine from different sources in the environment and industry, detection of melamine in the body would not necessarily predict future illness.
How long does melamine stay in the body?
Scientists do not know exactly how long it takes the human body to eliminate melamine. Animal studies suggest that excretion is fairly rapid—for example, half of the total quantity of melamine consumed was eliminated in 4 hours in pigs and 3 hours in rats.
How should health care providers treat potential melamine exposures?
The most important action is to stop any ongoing exposure. Specific laboratory and imaging studies can be used based on the patient’s symptoms, for example to evaluate kidney function or urinary stones.
What exactly is Melamine?
What exactly is melamine?
Melamine is an organic compound that is often combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a synthetic polymer which is fire resistant and heat tolerant. Melamine resin is a very versatile material with a highly stable structure. Uses for melamine include whiteboards, floor tiles, kitchenware, fire retardant fabrics, and commercial filters. Melamine can be easily molded while warm, but will set into a fixed form. This property makes it ideally suited to certain industrial applications.
Its most common form, melamine resin, a mix of melamine and formaldehyde, is used in the manufacture of formica, floor tiles, whiteboards and kitchenware.
Melamine resin is manufactured by mixing urea with formaldehyde under heat and pressure. The substances begin to polymerize and are forced into a mold which will create the desired shape. Under pressure, melamine releases water, which could make the plastic unstable if it is not removed. The materials finish polymerizing and create a finished product, melamine resin.
-- Melamine is a white powder used in plastic-making. It was first synthesised by a German scientist in the 1830s.
WHY ADD MELAMINE TO MILK POWDER?
-- Melamine is rich in nitrogen, and relatively cheap. Adding it to sub-standard or watered-down milk makes the milk's protein level appear higher. Standard quality tests estimate protein levels by measuring nitrogen content.
IS THIS WHY IT WAS ADDED TO PET FOOD?
-- Yes. Melamine was linked to the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States last year after it was added to wheat gluten and other pet food ingredients exported from China, in another attempt to boost the products' apparent protein content.
Now we are finding new foods all over the world that have melamine.
Melamine resin is known as a thermoset plastic, because the plastic is fixed after molding. If exposed to enough heat, melamine will melt. For this reason, melamine dishware should not be exposed to high temperatures like those in the oven and microwave. However, the plastic is able to withstand higher temperatures than other plastics. Because it is a thermoset plastic, melamine resin is difficult to recycle.
Melamine can be made into a foam product. Melamine foam has a distinctive structure composed of stacked bubble shapes, which are extremely hard and therefore can easily clean a wide variety of substances. Melamine foam is marketed under a variety of commercial names including Magic Eraser, a cleaning tool well known for removing scuffs and dirt from a wide range of surfaces.
Melamine resin is used in Formica and similar construction products made from composite materials. Formica is made using melamine resin, which is used to coat the fibers in the upper layer of the construction product. The melamine resin makes the end result heat resistant, so that hot objects can be set on the counter without concern. The surface of the material is designed to be easily wiped and cleaned, creating a long lived household product.
Melamine also plays a role in a wide range of flame resistant materials. These include textiles used in upholstery and the uniforms worn by firemen. Thermal liners, heat resistant gloves, and aprons to protect from splashback of hot substances are made using melamine. Melamine will protect a wearer from heat hazards, and will help to resist the spread of fire in aircraft and buses by providing a fire blocker.
Melamine is also used in the manufacture of some filters. The material is porous and will admit substances to pass through, but can be used to filter out particles of a particular size. Melamine filters are capable of handling a high capacity and can be used in hot environments due to the heat resistance of melamine. Melamine filters are also extremely efficient.
Aside from common commercial uses, melamine became a topic of much discussion in early 2007, when veterinary scientists determined it to be the cause of hundreds of pet deaths, because of pet food contamination. Prior to these reports, melamine had been regarded as non-toxic or minimally toxic. However, because of the unexplained presence of melamine in wheat gluten added to mass-produced dog and cat foods, it is the most likely cause. Pet owners report symptoms that are commonly associated with renal failure, which could be explained by the ammonia that may result from the digestion of the melamine.
See: What does melamine do to the body?
Potential Melamine foods in Malaysia tested and banned
Malaysia Orders Tests on All Imported China Food
Source: Reuters
24/09/2008
Kuala Lumpur, Sept 24 – The Malaysian government ordered safety tests on Wednesday on all food imported from China, even as Beijing sought to assure the world its products are safe.
Daily News Alerts
Malaysia’s health ministry said it had issued a “level 5″ alert on all Chinese food products coming into the country, which means they would be held and tested for safety before being released to the market.
Beijing is battling public alarm and international dismay after close to 13,000 Chinese children crowded hospitals, ill from infant milk formula tainted with melamine, a cheap industrial chemical that can be used to cheat quality checks.
Nitrogen-rich melamine can be added to watered-down milk to fool quality checks, which often use nitrogen levels to measure the amount of protein in milk. The chemical is used in making plastics.
On Wednesday, Australia, Indonesia and the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan joined the growing list of countries warning about the consumption of China-made milk products or pulling them off the shelves of stores and supermarkets.
Indonesia has temporarily banned imports of dairy products from China, and the Indonesian Food and Drugs Supervisory Agency has instructed all regional offices to pull out Chinese dairy products from stores for investigation.
"We don't want to take any risks, so we will still take safety measures," the head of the Food and Drugs Supervisory Agency, Husniah Rubiana Thamrin, told reporters.
Thamrin said the agency was also raiding stores for products such as yoghurt, ice creams and milk drinks from China, and would punish people who violated the ban.
Bhutan's Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority asked shops to stop selling all Chinese milk products as a "precautionary measure".
"The ban will be on until BAFRA investigates all milk-based food products from China, including laboratory analysis," a government statement said on Wednesday.
Australia on Wednesday issued fresh warnings for China and nearby nations in the wake of the scandal, advising its citizens overseas to avoid all Chinese-made milk products, unless companies have confirmed their goods are free from contamination.
The country has not received any dairy imports from China since April 2007.
Countries that have banned or recalled Chinese milk products include Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Melamine and banned Sudan Red 1 dye found in eggs in China.
HONG KONG — The discovery of excessive levels of the industrial chemical melamine in Chinese eggs has prompted the Hong Kong authorities to expand health tests to include meat products imported from China, a senior official said Sunday.
The move follows the announcement late Saturday that Hong Kong testers had found 4.7 parts per million of melamine in imported eggs produced by a division of China’s Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group. The legal limit for melamine in foodstuffs in Hong Kong is 2.5 ppm.
Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said the melamine may have come from feed given to the chickens that laid the eggs. “The preliminary opinion experts have given us is that there is a problem with the [chicken] feed,” Mr. Chow told reporters Saturday. The egg results have prompted officials to expand food testing to meat imports from China, Mr. Chow told reporters Sunday.Calls to Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, based in the northeastern port city Dalian, went unanswered Sunday.
In an earlier egg-related food safety scare in Hong Kong and China the banned cancer-causing industrial dye, Sudan Red, was used to color egg yolks.
China is caught in a food safety scandal over dairy products tainted with melamine. More than 3,600 children remain sick in China from contaminated milk, with three in serious condition, the Ministry of Health said last week. The deaths of four infants have been blamed on dairy products contaminated with melamine.
Authorities say middlemen apparently added melamine to milk they collected from farmers to sell to large dairy companies. The suppliers are accused of watering down the milk and then adding the nitrogen-rich chemical to make the milk seem higher in protein when tested.
Melamine is used in the manufacturing of plastics, fertilizer, paint and adhesives. Health experts say ingesting a small amount poses no danger, but in larger doses, the chemical can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.
The Hong Kong government also said it found excessive amounts of melamine in Blueberry Cream Sandwich crackers made by Philippine company Croley Foods MFG. Corp.
Copyright © 2008 Associated Press
Russia and Vietnam find melamine in foods from China
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed, officials said Friday.
Chinese food safety personnel check the fresh milk at a milk collection station in Chengdu, China.
Chinese food safety personnel check the fresh milk at a milk collection station in Chengdu, China.
Russian news agencies reported that food inspectors found nearly two tons of Chinese dry milk believed to be contaminated with melamine. And Philippines health officials found melamine in two of 30 milk products from China tested for the chemical.
Australian food regulators recalled China-made Kirin Milk Tea after tests found the drink contained melamine. It is the fourth product withdrawn from the country's stores in the wake of China's tainted milk scandal.
Milk containing melamine has been blamed for killing four babies and sickening more than 54,000 with kidney stones and other illnesses in China. The contamination has sparked global concerns about food products made with Chinese milk or milk powder and recalls in several countries of Chinese-made products.
Chinese authorities believe suppliers trying to boost output diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
The tainted food has also spread to the U.S. where melamine has been found in Chinese-made White Rabbit Creamy Candy sold in California and Connecticut.
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that trace amounts of melamine are safe in most foods, except for baby formula. A safety assessment by the agency concluded that 2.5 parts per million -- a tiny amount -- does not raise concerns. A week ago, the FDA warned consumers not to consume White Rabbit Candy and Mr. Brown coffee products because of possible melamine contamination
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Recent tests in Vietnam found melamine in dairy products and crackers imported from China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the Ministry of Health's Web site. It did not list all the brand names that tested positive for melamine, but among them were five different varieties of Yili milk, one of the brands found to be contaminated in China.
"We will intensify our inspections for melamine contamination to ensure the safety of consumers," said Nguyen Thi Khanh Tram, vice director of Vietnam's food safety administration.
Most of the contaminated items were milk and dairy products from China, the ministry said.
However, they also included crackers imported from Malaysia and Indonesia as well as a powdered dairy creamer imported from Thailand. It was not clear whether those products had been produced in those countries or simply shipped to Vietnam from warehouses there.
Even before the test results were announced, retailers across Vietnam had begun removing tons of Chinese dairy products from their shelves and importers have been destroying them, Vietnamese media reported.
Vietnamese authorities have also said they will require all milk products to be tested before they can be imported.
Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III identified the two tainted brands Friday as Mengniu and Yili, which have already been found to be contaminated in tests in China.
Duque said 28 other products, including M&M chocolate candies, powdered milk and yogurt have been cleared for sale and 200 more were being tested. Additional results may be released early next week.
The Philippine government halted imports and sales of Chinese milk products pending inspections last week.
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Russia's ITAR-Tass quoted Russia's chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko as saying that 2 tons of dry milk was seized in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, on the Chinese border.
Consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor on Tuesday banned all imports of Chinese dairy produce
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