FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

Public health groups, consumer advocates and members of Congress blasted the Food and Drug Administration yesterday for failing to act after discovering trace amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula sold in the United States.

"This FDA, this Bush administration, instead of protecting the public health, is protecting industry," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA budget. In an interview, DeLauro said she wants the agency to disclose its findings and to develop a plan to remove melamine from formula. "We're talking about babies, about the most vulnerable. This really makes me angry."

The FDA found melamine and cyanuric acid, a related chemical, in samples of baby formula made by major U.S. manufacturers. Melamine can cause kidney and bladder stones and, in worst cases, kidney failure and death. If melamine and cyanuric acid combine, they can form round yellow crystals that can also damage kidneys and destroy renal function.

Melamine was found in Good Start Supreme Infant Formula With Iron made by Nestle, and cyanuric acid was detected in Enfamil Lipil With Iron infant formula powder made by Mead Johnson....

The FDA has been testing hundreds of food products for melamine in the aftermath of a scandal this year involving Chinese infant formula tainted with melamine. Chinese manufacturers deliberately added the chemical to watered-down formula to make it appear to contain higher levels of protein. More than 50,000 Asian infants were hospitalized, and at least four died....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/26/AR2008112600386.html?nav=most_emailed

[fascisthunter]

1. What this Bush Admin and FDA did was Criminal

poisoning children for a profit???? Hey libertarians and free-market maggots? So this is what you want to see across the board, and save me the expression of being "concerned".... you all are a bunch of pathological psychopaths for greed.

[rexcat]

5. The FDA has never done its job when it comes to infant formulas.

The major manufactures of formulas have conducted "clinical trials" for years and, to my knowledge, there was never an audit of any of the trials that were submitted to the FDA. I know this from personal experience because I had contracts with two of the manufactures to monitor some of their clinical trials and none of the trials that I worked on were ever audited by the FDA. It was also stated by the managers of the trials that they had never had audits conducted by the FDA . At least in Pharma based trials audits are conducted (about 10% of sites are audited along with the Pharma companies).

I also know that one company may have included suspect data in a report. I had been at a site and the data on the case report forms were not substantiated with the infants clinic charts as required by "Good Clinical Practices" and what the FDA requires. I put in my report to the company that the data was suspect and should not be used in the analysis. This was discussed with the manager of the project knowing full well that I would not get another contract with the company for future work if I included the statement in the report. I never did get another project with the company and that was over 8 years ago.

When it comes to food safety the FDA does not do its job. The food division is the most slack of the divisions of the FDA. The second worst division is "Devices" which includes cardiac stents and equipment used in the clinical setting. Over the years I had one device study contract and after that experience I have refused to work on devises in clinical research. Overall the Rx division does the best but there needs to be improvemnets within that division beacuse the Bush administration has done great harm to the FDA oversight of new drug applications and the Rx drug approval process.

[TheEuclideanOne]

20. Look on the bright side.....

If Bush was re-elected, this would just get worse. The McBush admin would just use their usual approach, they would simply put Melamine in the ingredient label and claim that there is nothing wrong here. I am surprised he is not trying to push that before he leaves office.

[glowing]

2. And you know, formula isn't cheap. Its quite expensive. How much is the profit?

Or how much must the CEO's pocket? Corporate greed is disgusting.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Formula was specifically paid for by Gov't WIC program. For years.

Milk was not.
So low income mothers bought formula.

And what of all that formula US was forcing on 3rd world countries?

[Connonym]

24. I still maintain that instead of subsidizing formula they should pay low-income women to breast feed

Seems to me it would be better for everyone (except the formula companies)

[glowing]

25. Not all women are able to feed their babies with breast milk.

Some children are allegic, some children don't get enough milk from their mother.. and then there's work that interfere's with feeding schedules. The only way to get people to work is to give them a way to feed their babies when their breast is not around. The govt makes enough tax off the mother at work to offset any WIC programs it supplements.

[Connonym]

26. I understand that, I wasn't able to nurse my second child

but I don't think physically being unable to nurse is that common (in my case surgery had severed my milk ducts). I've actually never heard of a child being allergic to its mother's milk. Even if a mother can only nurse for 6 weeks it's better than formula and longer term nursing would be very possible if businesses were forced to accommodate nursing mothers. All they'd need to do is provide a quiet clean area (not a bathroom!) and refrigeration. Even before we knew they were allowing toxins in the formula supply we knew that mother's milk was superior to formula. Now there's even more reason to believe it. And let's not forget that formula is grossly over priced. The formula companies are who really makes out with WIC. Certainly not 100% of women can nurse successfully but certainly way more women could than do.

[glowing]

27. And then you'd have to assume those oh so friendly work places like

McDonald's and Walmart would provide the breaktime and a quiet place to pump their milk and store their milk.. under locked key from tampering by other employees.. I can just see now some younger staff thinking it would be funny to add something to the milk. Its just not easy enough to do for many women.. that's why they use the formula. AND yes, if you can do 6 weeks, that is the best time. That's when the good stuff get's passed... after that its about nourishment and fattening the baby. I hate the current system. I wish that all new mother's were given the option of being at home with pay for at least 6 months in this country. Its safer all the way around for a new baby.. and it gives the mother time to get thru the tough times after having the baby.. The reality is there is very little respect for mother's in this country and in many countries. AND there is little respect for families.

[Connonym]

28. you're absolutely right about that

I hate how the right has laid claim to family values when it's their own who have created a climate that is toxic to families.

[MadMaddie]

3. melamine and cyanuric acid

My question is why would any sane person think that, "melamine and cyanuric acid" would be okay to put in baby formula?

I was trying to think of a logical reason and I come up with nothing. This is criminal activity.

[bettyellen]

12. it's a dead cheap source of fake "protein" - it falsely jacks up the % of protein content

when tested so people can water down the product. it's also something that due to govt subsidies, there's an over abundance of in China... so this is the big end use they have found for it.

[TexasProgresive]

13. My guess is that these chemicals were not directly added

to the formula but were additives in the dairy feed and some passed through to the milk.

[seafan]

4. Bush's gutted FDA: A dangerous threat to the public safety

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/26/AR2008112600386_pf.html">FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula

By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 27, 2008; A02

.....

The FDA collected 87 samples of infant formula made by American manufacturers, tested all but 10 of them and held a conference call Monday with manufacturers to alert them to the preliminary findings, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said. She said she did not know when the agency was planning to inform the public.
The test results were unearthed by the Associated Press, which had filed a request for records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Leon said that the amounts discovered are safe and that parents should continue to feed formula to their children. "We know that trace levels do not pose a risk whatsoever," she said.
That contradicts the agency's recent statements about melamine, including a position paper that was on its Web site yesterday that asserted there are no safe levels of melamine for infants. "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns," the document said.

.....

"Just one month ago, the FDA had been very clear about how they could not set a safe level of melamine in formula for babies," said Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. "Now they're saying trace levels are no problem. What changed?"

.....

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who is on the House Commerce and Energy Committee, is also seeking a recall. "Until they establish a safety standard, how can they say what's safe?" he said. "They need to pull this."

Critics said the FDA's reassurances about products carry less weight after the recent controversy over bisphenol-A, a chemical found in plastic baby bottles, dinnerware and the linings of food cans. The FDA dismissed a growing body of scientific evidence that has linked BPA to health problems even as worried consumers stopped buying BPA-containing products. Instead, the FDA relied on two industry-funded studies that concluded that BPA did not pose a health risk. Last month, the agency's science advisory board said the agency should no longer maintain that BPA is safe.

"When FDA claims there isn't any reason to worry, that's exactly what the consumer should do," said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. "The once-revered public health agency has morphed into a taxpayer-funded public relations arm for the very industries it was created to oversee."

Yet another catastrophic Bush legacy.



This is expanding beyond the contamination of pet food, hog feed, chicken feed and fish feed., May 8, 2007


Update from the American Veterinary Medical Association:, May 8, 2007


Veterinarians issue warning on dog treats from China, September 15, 2007

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Thanks for this additional info, seafan! nt

[seafan]

8. Y'welcome. Mom. Bush's science-deprived FDA is a cruel joke.

[gravity]

7. The FDA has taken the appropriate action in this case

Any scientists in the field will agree with it.

[Hekate]

9. KnR. Bush set the FDA back a century--but the origins of this really are in China

It's the fault of both US companies and the US government for NOT checking, but theirs is a passive crime. Like the "see no evil" monkey with its hands over its eyes, they looked the other way when profits were to be had.

Putting melamine into wheat gluten for pet food and farm animal feed, then into protein powders destined for baby food formula and body builder's supplements was strictly a Chinese idea. Not the government, but the network of countless suppliers whose individual operators want to beef up their profit margins by pennies on the pound. Melamine is an industrial waste by-product, a poison -- but on lab tests it looks like the protein content of food has been boosted. Unless the lab is looking for contaminants, it doesn't show up. Theirs was the active crime. And no, clearly they did not care who got hurt.

Heads should roll all up and down this economic ladder for poisoning us, but chances are very good that no one in this country will be punished, and that only a few low level Chinese will end up as unwilling organ donors, or maybe some ministry official there will be made an example of.

Back when so many pets in this country were dying, I said that wheat gluten is widely dispersed in human food as well. I'm no scientist, and I could see this coming.

Bush and his cronies gutted the FDA. Poetic justice would have them in jail for their many crimes, being fed three meals a day (with tasty snacks) of the same food that they encouraged into this country in the name of profit.

Hekate

[salin]

10. to any lurking freeper...

tell all of your social conservative friends - that the GOP trackrecord to proclaim they support "a culture of life" and protecting babies - only as long as it doesn't endanger corporate profits.

Or perhaps they propogandize the pro-life issue to get the social conservatives to vow loyalty to the GOP and it is all a marketing scam perpetrated on the gullible.

This is just one of many many examples of how the Bush administration has used the federal goverment to promote business causes at the expense of the health and safety of public citizens (and in this example of those individuals most vulnerable - infants.)

[trthnd4jstc]

11. A lot of Republicans are Anti-Abortion-"Pro Life", but also Pro-Business. I guess it is OK with

Republicans if we poison babies?

[Algorem]

14. Money talks,babies walk.Or crawl, I guess,until they can walk.

Or not crawl or walk when they're getting dialysis,or kidney transplants,or dead,thanks to BushCo.

[pattmarty]

15. You might as well shitcan all these departments since they.................

.......no longer do what they were intended to, and that is PROTECT THE CONSUMER. Ya know, I have just figured out (and I am 62yo) that there is no "trick" or voodoo that surrounds basic economics. If there is a "trick" it is an even handed regimen of regulation of the "markets" and the banking/lending institutions.


edit to add: This goes for ALL our governments departments, the SEC, FEC, FDA, DOJ, DOL and however more there are. They ALL are supposed to protect the citizens of the United States, just like our armed services, so let's get going Jan 20 to repair them all to do what they once did and what they indeed were intended to do.

[fortyfeetunder]

16. Trace amounts are unacceptable for infants....

What may be acceptable for an adult is concentrated and intolerable in the infant body.
How about NONE?

[HopeHoops]

17. Shouldn't the melamine standard be ABSOLUTE ZERO???

[bushmeister0]

18. I especially love this bit.

"The FDA collected 87 samples of infant formula made by American manufacturers, tested all but 10 of them and held a conference call Monday with manufacturers to alert them to the preliminary findings, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said."

To alert them to what findings? To give their legal department a heads up? I mean, what went on in this conference call? 'Guys, you product is dangerous, but we got your back.'

Unfreaking believable!

Here's a press release from yesterday from the FDA web site:

"Low levels of melamine are present in the environment and trace amounts may occur in certain food commodities as a result of approved uses.

Parents using infant formula should continue using U.S. manufactured infant formula. Switching away from using one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or home-made formulas could result in infants not receiving the complete nutrition required for proper growth and development."

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/melamine.html

If they survive, that is.

I love that bit where they say: 'Hey, it's in the environment anyway, like radiation, for example. Totally natural.'

And that bit about "approved uses" sounds strangely like Mead Johnson's spokesperson's newspeak:

"Cyanuric acid is approved by the FDA to sanitize processing equipment. The risks of not sanitizing equipment are far greater than ultra trace amounts of residual cyanuric acid found in the formula."

Riiiiight. How using something that doesn't endanger children?

Nevermind about all this, just go shop 'til you drop. You can trust us, we're the government.

Would it be ok if congress went after Bush's commissars at the FDA for endangering the lives of American babies, or would that be seen as partisan retribution, too?

[NoAmericanTaliban]

21. Clear example of putting corporate cronies in charge of regulations

[CoffeeCat]

22. In this article...

...it is reported that melamine and cyanuric acid was found in baby formula that was "made by major U.S. manufacturers.

So, this means that American companies are now following China's practices?

China has been doing this for a while.

So, despite the known health hazards, American companies are producing baby formula made with ingredients that contain melamine?

This stuff isn't made in China. It's made here. That's the big shocker for me.

Baby formula has been tested. What other products have melamine and cyanuric acid in them...that we don't know about?

Other Chinese products--such as candy, protein powder.

Shouldn't someone be testing these products?

I'm concerned that this formula is made here! We're doing this now!

This is a very grave situation.

[Shallah Kali]

23. In SouthAfrica they think the melamine in baby formula comes from cattle feed - link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4554491&mesg_id=4554491
or http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/28/1316/0758/894/667293