6 arrested for role in China milk scandal

By HENRY SANDERSON

BEIJING

Oct. 23: China arrested six people on Thursday for their role in supplying contaminated milk to the country’s dairy companies, as the health ministry said more than 3,600 Chinese children remain hospitalised after consuming compromised products.

The six suspects, who worked in the major dairy-producing region of inner Mongolia, either sold melamine to milk suppliers or added the industrial chemical to milk themselves, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Melamine, used in plastics and fertiliser, can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure in larger doses. A total of 3,654 children remain sick, with three in serious condition, the health ministry said in a notice on its website late on Wednesday. Authorities say middlemen apparently added melamine to milk they collected from farmers to sell to large dairy companies.

The suppliers are accused of watering down the milk and then adding the nitrogen-rich chemical to make the milk seem higher in protein when tested. Protein tests often simply measure nitrogen levels. As of Wednesday, a total of 46,717 children had been treated and discharged from hospitals, the health ministry said. Milk powder contaminated with melamine has been blamed for the deaths of four infants.

There have not been any more reports of deaths, the ministry said, adding that all the deaths occurred between May to August, which was before the public knew milk products were tainted. Xinhua said the government in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia’s capital, requested that the police launch an investigation into the sources of milk for China’s largest dairy companies, Yili Industrial Group and Mengniu Dairy Group Co — both of which are headquartered in the region. —AP