Up to 90 percent of the infant formula sold in the United States may be contaminated
with trace amounts of melamine, the toxic chemical linked to kidney damage, according to
recent tests. The FDA's test results, which the agency hid from the public and only
released after the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request, showed
that Nestle, Mead Johnson and Enfamil infant formula products were all contaminated with
melamine.
The AP is also reporting that Abbott Laboratories conducted its own in-house tests that
detected trace levels of melamine in its formula products. Together, these infant formula manufacturers
make about 90 percent of the infant formula sold in the United States.
Prior to these test results being made public, the FDA had published a document on its
website that explained there was no safe level of melamine contamination in infant
formula. Specifically, the FDA 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."
Once tests found melamine in U.S.-made formula products, however, the FDA changed its
story. As of today, the FDA has now officially declared melamine to be safe in infant
formula as long as the contamination level is less than one part per million (1 ppm).
Astonishingly: The FDA has no new science to justify its abrupt decision declaring
melamine to be safe!
Rather than being based on science, the FDA's decision appears to be based entirely on
creating cover for U.S. infant formula manufacturers whose products were found to be
contaminated with melamine. The "acceptable" level of contamination (1 ppm) is
conveniently just above the levels found in U.S. infant formula products, thus placing
U.S. infant formula in the "safe" contamination level category.
And yet the FDA has conducted no safety testing whatsoever to determine whether 1ppm of
melamine is safe for infants to consume. There is no science involved in this decision
whatsoever. Rather than this decision being based on science, the FDA is once again
resorting to politically-motivated decisions that seek to protect the profits of Big
Business rather than the safety of infants and children.
Recall that the FDA also recently declared Bisphenol-A to be safe for infants to consume,
even while countries like Canada banned the chemical from baby bottles. The FDA, it seems
has never met a corporate-sponsored chemical it didn't like.
Where did the melamine come from?
Laughingly, the FDA claims the 1ppm of melamine in U.S. infant formula must have come
from the manufacturing machines or food
packaging equipment. And yet the AP is reporting that the expected level of melamine
contamination from manufacturing equipment is only 15 ppb (parts per billion).
But the FDA's own tests on Mead Johnson infant formula reveal it to contain 245 ppb, or
1600% more than what would be expected to exists due to melamine contamination from
manufacturing equipment.
There are two really important questions that any intelligent consumer should be asking
about all this:
Question #1) If the manufacturing and packaging equipment is contaminated with melamine,
does this mean that ALL food products containing milk protein are similarly
contaminated? The same companies that make infant formula also make Slim Fast, Ensure and
Boost -- all are milk protein-based meal replacement products containing many of the same
ingredients as infant formula. Are they contaminated with melamine, too?
Question #2) If manufacturing and packaging machinery should only result in melamine
contamination levels of 15 ppb, and yet 245 ppb were found in the infant formula, then where
did all the extra melamine come from? The FDA has no explanation for this and seems to
hope people will forget to ask.
Two theories of melamine contamination
I offer two theories to explain the melamine contamination of these products.
Obviously, the contamination could not be caused by the manufacturing and packaging of the
product, because the melamine levels already found in U.S. infant formula products greatly
exceed the expected levels from such manufacturing and packaging. The following two
theories may explain the additional levels of detected melamine.
Theory #1: The infant formula is adulterated with melamine
This is what happened in China: Infant formula manufacturers added melamine to their milk
protein to bulk up the product without adding much cost (melamine is much cheaper than
milk protein). Because melamine's chemical profile is strikingly similar to milk protein,
it can often fool simple protein analysis tests and appear to be legitimate.
If infant formula products use any milk protein from China, it could very easily have been
adulterated with melamine. However, this is just a theory, and NaturalNews has no evidence that
U.S. infant formula manufacturers actually used milk protein from China. Thus, we do not
believe Theory #1 to be correct. Theory #2, below, seems more likely.
Theory #2: U.S. dairy operations are using animal feed contaminated with
melamine
Because melamine is passed through cow's
milk, the contamination of U.S. dairy cows
with melamine through their feed could result in high melamine concentrations in the
resulting milk proteins.
China has already admitted that melamine has been detected in alarming quantities in
animal feed there, and tests have already shown chickens to be contaminated with the
chemical. The question today is this: Do U.S. dairy farms use animal feed containing
ingredients imported from China?
If so, then we may have a problem here that's much, much bigger than infant formula. We
may have a dairy industry that's producing melamine-contaminated milk, which could
mean that virtually all milk, yoghurt, butter and cheese produced in the U.S. might be
contaminated with some level of melamine.
Again, NaturalNews has no proof that this is the situation, but the melamine must have
come from somewhere. It didn't just spontaneously generate in the infant formula as the
FDA would seemingly want us to believe. If the milk proteins in infant formula are
contaminated with melamine, then it stands to reason that the milk proteins used
throughout the food supply may also be contaminated.
We may, indeed, be looking at an industry-wide problem here. Powdered milk, meal
replacement products and even milk protein drinks may all be contaminated with melamine at
levels similar to the infant formula products.
Because you have to follow the logic here: Either the infant formula manufacturers ADDED
melamine to their products (highly unlikely), or the entire milk product industry has a
melamine problem.
You can't logically conclude that these infant formula manufacturers somehow got all the
melamine-contaminated milk proteins but everybody else got melamine-free milk proteins.
Milk proteins are a commodity in the food industry, and milk from thousands of different
cows can all be mixed together in a single pound of milk protein. What could be happening
here is that one dairy farm may have highly-contaminated cows because it used cheap
feed fillers from China.
At this point, this is all just a theory, but it's a theory that makes sense. It makes a
lot more sense than the FDA's theory that there's no problem and babies should just keep
drinking melamine (and Bisphenol-A, for that matter...) and the press should stop asking
questions.
Secret tests and public lies
There's no doubt that these infant formula manufacturers are pursuing the very same
contamination theories I'm describing here. They're probably scrambling to test their milk
protein sources, trying to figure out where all the extra melamine is coming from.
As usual, they'll try to keep the test results secret, preventing this from exploding into
a much larger public health issue.
The FDA, for its part, will continue to conduct any actual science in secret, preventing
the public from knowing the tests results unless it is sued by organizations like the AP.
That's assuming the FDA conducts any science at all, because now the FDA believes it can
declare contaminants to be safe at a level it just invents on the spot, without conducting
any science whatsoever. The FDA is playing "Wheel of Fortune" with public safety
(http://www.naturalnews.com/023681.html),
and it's relying on guessing games - rather than actual science - to declare safety levels
of chemicals it doesn't even understand.
The upshot of all this is really quite simple: People who feed their babies
manufactured, mainstream infant formula products are fools! If there was ever a reason
to breastfeed your baby, this is it. And if you're looking for truly safe infant formula
products, go with natural brands such as Genesis Organics Goat Milk Formula (www.GenesisOrganics.com) or
other "natural" brands that don't use cheap cow's milk proteins.
After all, it's quite clear at this point that the FDA doesn't care about your baby's
health. You're the only one who can protect your baby from melamine. The FDA flat out
refuses to do so. In fact, it's doing the opposite by declaring melamine to be safe!
So stop buying conventional infant formula products and start feeding your baby
what it was meant to consume: Human breast milk from a healthy, well-nourished mom who
eats lots of omega-3 oils and superfoods.
That's the best infant formula in the world. And by the way, human babies shouldn't be
drinking bovine milk in the first place. The whole infant formula industry was a scam long
before melamine came along. Now it's a contaminated scam. (naturalnews,11.29.2008, Mike Adams)
http://www.naturalnews.com/z024947.html