Thursday, October 9, 2008

melamin??

In September 2008, several companies were implicated in a scandal involving milk and infant formula which had been adulterated with melamine, leading to kidney stones and other renal failure, especially among young children.

By 22 Septem
ber, nearly 53,000 people had become ill, with more than 12,800 hospitalizations and four infant deaths.

Melamine may have been added to fool government protein content tests after water was added to fraudulently dilute the milk. Because of melamine's high nitrogen content, it can cause the protein content of food to appear higher than the true value.


Melamine is an organic base and a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% nitrogen by mass and, if mixed with resins, has fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred, and has several other industrial uses.


Melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid it can caus
e fatal kidney stones due to the formation of an insoluble melamine cyanurate. Melamine is described as being "Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.”
However, the toxic dose is on a par with common table salt with an LD50 of more than 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight.


FDA scientists explained that when melamine and cyanuric acid are absorbed into the bloodstream, they concentrate and interact in the urine-filled renal microtubules, then crystallize and form large numbers of round, yellow crystals, which in turn block and damage the renal cells that line the tubes, causing the kidneys t
o malfunction.

No comments: