[health alert - usa] FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula - read melamine

[Guest guest]

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, November 27, 2008; Page A02

 

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. A spokesman for Nestle did not respond to repeated

calls and e-mails for comment yesterday.

 

Gail Wood, a spokeswoman for Mead Johnson, said the company does not think that

cyanuric acid poses a health threat to infants. " Cyanuric acid is approved by

the FDA to sanitize processing equipment, " she said. " The risks of not

sanitizing equipment are far greater than ultra trace amounts of residual

cyanuric acid found in the formula. "

 

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.

 

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.

 

Agency scientists have maintained they could not set a safe level of melamine

exposure for babies because they do not understand the effects of long-term

exposure on a baby's developing kidneys. The problem is exacerbated by the fact

that infant formula is a baby's sole source of food for many months. Premature

infants absorb an especially large dose of the chemical, compared with full-term

babies.

 

" 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? "

 

The FDA thinks the melamine and cyanuric acid got into the U.S. formula as a

byproduct of manufacturing and not as a result of tampering, Leon said. Melamine

is found in plastic food packaging and in cleaning solutions that are sometimes

used in food processing equipment.

 

The FDA spokeswoman said no illnesses have been linked to melamine consumption

in the United States.

 

But Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, said

that may not be true. " Given that this is not a problem that American doctors

are used to dealing with, we can't be sure that if a small number of these cases

developed, the connection would be made, " said Halloran, who wants the formulas

to be recalled from store shelves. " We just don't know. "

 

Halloran said it is also possible some babies are receiving a variety of infant

formula and could be ingesting melamine in one bottle and cyanuric acid in

another bottle, creating a dangerous mix.

 

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. "

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/26/AR2008112600386_\

2.html?hpid=sec-health

 

 

 

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