Thread: Who is fighting back against China poisoning our Children?

For those of you that have read the latest Melamine news and listened to Sunday's show.

Please find and post for us any consumer groups you can find in America that are fighting back?

Who is fighting back? Who is fighting against the FDA and corporations on this?

Sunday's show
LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE


W

W.,

I see that Chris Dodd made a statement in 2007 to discontinue the imports from China.

Dixie

im looking for groups and organizations.

W

Don't know if you have seen this already:
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Consumers Union Calls on the FDA to Immediately Release All Results of Its Tests for Melamine Contamination in Food Products

Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Reports of FDA Test Results Indicating Melamine Contamination in U.S. Infant Formula

Washington, D.C – Consumers Union is deeply concerned about news reports that FDA has found traces of melamine and cyanuric acid in U.S. infant formula. Melamine is a chemical that has a number of industrial uses and is a common ingredient in some plastic products, but is not approved as an ingredient in human food in the U.S.

It is not clear, absent a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press, whether the FDA would have released this information to the public. “Consumers Union calls on the FDA to immediately make public all of the results of its tests for melamine contamination in food, even if the only contamination detected was below the agency’s action level of 2.5 parts per million,â€

Thank you Populist and Dixie.

I'm a little surprised though, that more ALIPACers did not come to assist on this thread.

China is pumping poison into the mouths of America's most vulnerable infants tonight and there seems to be disinterest here in the topic of who is fighting back?

Come on people.

W

Populist, thank you for the info about Consumers Union.

I am glad to see Consumers Union is going after the FDA data and showing concern about the Melamine in products, but....

an initial scan of their site tells me I will not be able to support them.

In their resource link section they link to two heavy duty pro amnesty immigration organizations and their press director has been in with the goons.

Check out Jennifer Fuson.
http://www.consumersunion.org/pdf/bios/ ... o_2006.pdf

"Jennifer then served
Communications Specialist at the Center for Community Change, providing low-income
and minority community groups with advice on messaging and overall media strategy.
Her portfolio included welfare, hunger, and immigration issues, where her media efforts
help keep an eighteen year-old from being deported from the United States."



I need a good group fighting back that I can support without a conflict of interest on immigration issues.

W

What Business Does Melamine Have in US Baby Formula Products?
December 1, 2008
According to an Associated Press article published over the weekend, the FDA is going back on its previous statement that melamine contamination would not be tolerated in infant and baby formula sold in the United States. Now it appears that, despite sharing any evidence of studies supporting the safety of their decision, the FDA is allowing 1 part per million of melamine in baby formula sold in the United States so long as it doesn’t also include cyanuric acid, which combines with melamine to form melamine cyanurate.

Back when the only baby formulas being contaminated were Chinese brands and only thousands of Chinese babies were sick or dying, officials in the United States thought it was appalling that officials in China had allowed such contamination to go on. Now that traces of melamine have been found in big US brands like Similac, Enfamil and Nestle the FDA seems to be changing its story. Perhaps they’ve been visited by the holiday Lobby Elves?

[b]Regardless of what the FDA or any other organization deems as “safeâ€

Don't see this article posted, thought everyone may find it informative:

FDA finds traces of melamine in U.S. infant formula
Associated Press
November 27, 2008


Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe.

The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a "dangerous overreaction" for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.


"The levels that we are detecting are extremely low," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "They should not be changing the diet. If they've been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That's in the best interest of the baby."

Melamine is the chemical found in Chinese infant formula -- in far larger concentrations -- that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.

Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer.

Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

The three firms -- Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson -- manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.

The FDA and other experts said the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally.

The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

Sundlof said there have been no reports of human illness in the United States from melamine, which can bind with other chemicals in urine, potentially causing damaging stones in the kidney or bladder and, in extreme cases, kidney failure.

Melamine is used in some U.S. plastic food packaging and can rub off onto what we eat; it's also contained in a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment and can leach into the products being prepared.

Sundlof told the AP the positive test results "so far are in the trace range, and from a public health or infant health perspective, we consider those to be perfectly fine."

That's different from the impression of zero tolerance the agency left on Oct. 3, when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."

FDA scientists said then that they couldn't set an acceptable level of melamine exposure in infant formula because science hadn't had enough time to understand the chemical's effects on infants' underdeveloped kidneys. Plus, there is the complicating factor that infant formula often constitutes a newborn's entire diet.

The agency added, however, that its position did not mean that any exposure to a detectable level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula would result in harm to infants.

Still, the announcement was widely interpreted by manufacturers, the news media and Congress to mean that infant formula that tested positive at any level could not be sold in the United States.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, for example, told its members: "FDA could not identify a safe level for melamine and related compounds in infant formula; thus it can be concluded they will not accept any detectable melamine in infant formula."

It was not until the AP inquired about tests on domestic formula that the FDA articulated that while it couldn't set a safe exposure for infants, it would accept some melamine in formula -- raising the question of whether the decision to accept very low concentrations was made only after traces were detected.

On Sunday, Sundlof said the agency had never said, nor implied, that domestic infant formula was going to be entirely free of melamine. He said he didn't know if the agency's statements on infant formula had been misinterpreted.

In China, melamine was intentionally dumped into watered-down milk to trick food quality tests into showing higher protein levels than actually existed. Byproducts of the milk ended up in infant formula, coffee creamers, even biscuits.

The concentrations of melamine there were extraordinarily high, as much as 2,500 parts per million. The concentrations detected in the FDA samples were 10,000 times smaller -- the equivalent of a drop in a 64-gallon trash bin.

There would be no economic advantage to spiking U.S.-made formula at the extremely low levels found in the FDA testing. It neither raises the protein count nor saves valuable protein, said University of California, Davis chemist Michael Filigenzi, a melamine detection expert.

According to FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product -- Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. An FDA spreadsheet shows two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.

Three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct.

The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that meanwhile it is "prudent" to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine.

And while the FDA said tests of 18 samples of formula made by Abbott Laboratories, including its Similac brand, did not detect melamine, spokesman Colin McBean said some company tests did find the chemical. He did not identify the specific product or the number of positive tests.

McBean did say the detections were at levels far below the health limits set by all countries in the world, including Taiwan, where the limit is 0.05 parts per million.

"We're talking about trace amounts right here, and you know there's a lot of scientific bodies out there that say low levels of melamine are always present in certain types of foods," said McBean.

Mead Johnson spokeswoman Gail Wood said her company's in-house tests had not detected any melamine, and that the company had not been informed of the FDA test results, even during a confidential agency conference call Monday with infant formula makers about melamine contamination.

The FDA tests also detected melamine in two samples of nutritional supplements for very sick children who have trouble digesting regular food. Nestle's Peptamen Junior medical food showed 0.201 and 0.206 parts per million of melamine while Nestle's Nutren Junior-Fiber showed 0.16 and 0.184 parts per million.

The agency said that while there are no established exposure levels for infant formula, pediatric medical food -- often used in feeding tubes for very sick, young children -- can have 2.5 parts per million of melamine, just like food products other than infant formula.

The head of manufacturing for Nestle Nutrition in North America, Walter Huber, said in an interview that the company took samples alongside FDA officials who visited a manufacturing plant, and that those samples showed similar results to what FDA found for the two pediatric medical foods. Huber added that Nestle didn't fund cyanuric acid in any of the samples.

The FDA shared its results with Nestle a few weeks ago, Huber said. He said he wasn't sure whether Nestle had tested other of its products beyond what it did related to the FDA.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who heads a panel that oversees the FDA budget, said the agency was taking a "marketplace first, science last" approach.

"The FDA should be insisting on a zero-tolerance policy for melamine in domestic infant formula until it is able to determine conclusively based on sound independent science that the trace levels would not pose a health risk to infants," DeLauro said.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a frequent critic of the FDA, said: "If no safe level of melamine has been established for consumption by children, then the FDA should immediately recall any formula that has tested positive for even trace amounts of the contaminant."

Several medical experts said trace concentrations would be diluted even in an infant, and are highly unlikely to be harmful.

"It's just a tiny amount, it's very unlikely to cause stones," said Stanford University Medical School pediatrics professor Dr. Paul Grimm.

Dr. Jerome Paulson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., said he didn't think the FDA's decision was unreasonable. He added, however, that the agency should research the impacts of long-term, low-dose exposure, "and not just assume it's safe, and then 15 years from now find out that it's not."

www.latimes.com

Here is another group: "Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer rights organization based in Washington, D.C. that challenges the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources."

Note, I have never heard of this group previously. I've posted links below to the "about us" section of what I believe is this group's website. From a cursory review, it looks like they are on the liberal side of the spectrum:
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Consumer Group Representative Says Chinese Food Safety System 'reeks with Corruption'

By Genevieve Long, published Oct 09, 2008

Countries around the world are working to ban the import of melamine-contaminated products from China. But in the U.S., melamine-products and ingredients continue to flow through ports of entry, almost unchecked.

There have been widespread worldwide reports in recent weeks of milk products from China contaminated with melamine. The industrial chemical was also at the core of a series of pet food recalls in 2007. At least four infants in China have died from ingesting melamine-tainted baby formula

"We're very leery of the Chinese food safety system," says Tony Corbo, Legislative Representative for Food and Water Watch. "At best it's weak, at worst it's corrupt. It just reeks with corruption." Food and Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works on food and water safety issues.

Last month, the FDA issued an advisory that there is "no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell such products in the United States." The same advisory warned that infant formula manufactured in China could pose a risk.

Some are not convinced that imports from China are safe for public consumption, though.

"The recent scandal involving contaminated milk products from China clearly demonstrates that significant work remains for China to reform its food safety system," said Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) in a statement on Oct. 3.

"While the FDA has said that no contaminated baby formula has been legally imported into the U.S. from China, it is certainly possible that other dairy products including powdered milk and milk protein products have entered the United States, as they have in Europe." DeLauro is Chairwoman of the Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... html?cat=5

press release:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/ ... le10032008

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http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about/ ... -directors

Thank you again.

One thing I find highly disturbing is that there are no comments in these articles from the FDA or the manufacturers talking about getting all of the Melamine out of our baby food supply or the American food supply.

There's no talk of them taking action to rectify this situation.

I will try to check out "Food & Water Watch" to see if they are a group we could support without funding a pro illegal group.

W