Second infant death in China milk scandal

Local industry and commerce administrative bureau personnel check Sanlu formula milk products at a supermarket in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, September 12, 2008. REUTERS/China Daily

BEIJING // China has reported the death of a second infant from tainted milk powder in a growing scandal that has left hundreds more ill, but only led to a product recall after the New Zealand government raised the alarm. The latest death blamed on infant milk powder made by the Sanlu Group was in Gansu province, a poor northwestern region where the first infant fatality linked to the chemical-laced milk was also reported.

One of the infants was a five-month-old boy who died in May. The other was an eight-month-old girl who died in July after her parents removed her from hospital, health ministry official Wang Yu told a news conference. By today, 1,253 children had been diagnosed with illnesses linked to the milk powder, with 340 still in hospital and 53 "relatively serious", China's vice minister of health, Ma Xiaowei, told the news conference. At the weekend, officials said 432 children were ill from the milk powder.

Milk powder producer Sanlu, 43 per cent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, last week halted production after investigators found the chemical compound melamine in its powder was causing kidney stones and complications in infants. The scandal threatens to batter the nation's troubled product safety record soon after the public relations success of the Beijing Olympics and following a string of scares last year.

"The Chinese dairy sector has layer after layer of problems - technological, institutional, business," said Beijing lawyer Guan Anping, a former trade official who has dealt with the sector. "The government has been trying to strengthen consumer protection, but until deep-rooted problems are addressed, increasing the number of inspectors twenty-fold won't solve them ... The public must have a more direct, active role."

China is the world's second largest market for baby milk powder and the health scare and public outcry may yet grow. Two brothers surnamed Geng were arrested for "producing and selling toxic and hazardous food," police in Hebei, the north Chinese province where Sanlu is based, told Xinhua on Monday. From late last year they added melamine to the three tonnes of milk they sold on from farmers every day, the report said.

"Geng did so because he suffered losses after milk from his station had been rejected several times by Sanlu Group," it said. Farmers or dealers may have diluted milk with water and added melamine, used in plastics, to make the protein level appear higher than it really was. Melamine is rich in nitrogen, the element often used to measure protein. The Ministry of Agriculture launched a nationwide inspection of the dairy sector, Xinhua reported, quoting an analyst who said fierce competition had "exacerbated price fluctuations and increased quality control risks."

Local Chinese officials acted only after the New Zealand government contacted Beijing, The New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark, said on today. "They [Fonterra] have been trying for weeks to get official recall and the local authorities in China would not do it," Ms Clark said. "I think the first inclination was to try and put a towel over it and deal with it without an official recall." * Reuters