Dead Babies Can Take Care of Themselves

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The industrial chemical melamine is safe in baby formula in small amounts, U.S. regulators said, revising their earlier recommendations.

The Food and Drug Administration's discovery of melamine and a byproduct of the chemical in two U.S.-made formulas doesn't pose health risks, said Stephan Sundlof, director of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, on a conference call today with reporters. The FDA had said before finding the contamination that melamine may be harmful in infant formula in any amount.

In China, officials said melamine was added to milk illegally to artificially boost protein readings. The FDA said that wasn't the case with the U.S. samples. Melamine is approved for use in some food containers and may leach from packaging, Sundlof said.

"I don't know the reason it is appearing in some products and not others," he told reporters. "I really don't want to speculate on why it is in some and not in others because the real answer is that we don't know at this point."

The FDA began testing infant formula in September and has so far analyzed 74 of the 87 products it has collected. None of the samples contained both melamine and a related compound, cyanuric acid. After reviewing the samples and animal studies, the agency decided that either melamine or cyanuric acid alone is safe in formula at 1 part per million or less.

Nestle SA's liquid Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron tested positive for melamine in as much as 0.14 parts per million, and cyanuric acid was found in Bristol-Meyers Squib Co.'s powder Enfamil Lipil with Iron, in as much as 0.249 parts per million, Sundlof said.

No Safety Determination

The FDA still doesn't know what level is safe if both compounds are present in formula because the combination has been linked to more buildup in the kidneys. For other foods, that level is 2.5 parts per million.

The FDA may not know a safe level but I damn sure do, that level is zero! We are not talking about fines or losing high paying positions here but about jail-door-slamming hard time. To knowingly import products harmful to the weakest members of the American public is a crime against humanity. That the Federal bureau assigned to protect us answers with "we still don't know what level is safe" but bring it on anyway is inexcusable. Just more of the globalism follies, So just when is enough, enough?

"Dead babies can take care of themselves"