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Melamine just harmful

Health experts blast the acceptable melamine limit in food propaganda; HC gets milk test results today

Ershad Kamol
Some leading multinational powdered milk producers, in the face of a serious worldwide outcry of consumers, are propagating an acceptable level of melamine in milk products, prompting severe criticism from doctors and scientists who term it as 'nothing but an aggressive sales drive at the cost of public health'.
Citing guidelines set by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), many local distributors of the multinationals are also propagating that the permissible level of melamine in powdered milk is 10 milligrams perkilogram.
But what both the multination-
als and local distributors are not saying is that there is an uproar in the US about FDA's guidelines which has already made it controversial at best.
According to The Daily Star's internet research, on October 3 this year USFDA said up to 2.5 parts per million of melamine is safe for adults, but declined to set a standard for children.
FDA also implied it will not permit sale of food that has been deliberately adulterated with melamine.
US Congresswoman Rosa L DeLauro, also the chairwoman of the house sub-committee which oversees the FDA sub-committee, said nothing less than zero tolerance will protect consumers.
DeLauro criticised FDA's 'acceptable level for melamine in food' saying that is an insult to consumers, which gives an impression that FDA is condoning intentional contamination.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government is scheduled today to submit to the High Court (HC) domestic and international test results of melamine contamination in eight popular grands of powdered milk. ‘
The brands are Australia's Diploma and Red Cow, Denmark's Dano Full Cream, China'sYashili-1, Yashili-2 and Sweet Baby>2> and New Zealand's Nido Fortified Instant and Anlene.
"The whole world is now fixing
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their standards for acceptable daily intake of melamine considering the ground reality, as individual farmers all over the world adulterate milk with cheap elements," Quality Analyst Manager of Nestle Bangladesh Ltd Charanjeev Singh Kohli told The Daily Star on behalf of die company's managing director.
He also said, "In China, individual farmers adulterate milk with melamine as there milk is sold on the basis of its protein value. And giant producers of pow dered milk collect milk from individual farmers. The United States Food and Drug Administration guideline set the acceptable level at 10 milligrams per kilogram.
Earlier, the managing director of Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute (BSTD also made a similar statement without mentioning the source ofhis data.
Experts however do not agree with such claims.
According to Prof ABM Faroque, a teacher of the department of pharmaceutical technology at Dhaka University, it takes at least a couple of years for an acceptable toxicological study to come up with an acceptable daily intake.
"But, melamine in milk is a very recent issue, then how come we have already set an acceptable level of daily intake of melamine for humans?' he questioned.
Prof Nilufar Nahar, under whose leadership the chemistry department of Dhaka University detected melamine in eight brands of powdered milk, told The Daily Star, 'Melamine is not a part of milk, nor a preserving agent, nor it is a testing agent, not even a flavouring agent There is no chance of amorphous toxic melamine getting mixed in natural milk. So there can't be any permissible limit for such toxic element"
There can be an acceptable daily intake of it in case of food that is in contact with its container, as there is a possibility of melamine getting mixed with it through leaching. In case of leaching, melamine gets mixed with food as melamine formaldehyde resin, which is used in melamine industries. On the other hand amorphous melamine powder is deliberately mixed with milk to give a false impression that the milk contains high protein. It's adulteration and deception," she added.
Accusing multinational companies of deceiving consumers regarding the acceptable level of melamine intake for humans, Prof Faroque said, "Rich countries fix these types of minimum levels in the interest of their businesses. In fact, developed coun tries disciose such studies to sell their substandard products to poor countries.'
'I remember after the nuclear reactor disaster in Chernobyl, they came up with an acceptable level of 0.1 becquerel (Bq) radiation in a Hire of milk he added.
Prof Nahar said, "Let alone toxic
chemical melamine, except 22 essential proteins, even natural proteins are also harmful for health. So there can't be any minimum acceptable level of melamine in milk products."
Prof Faroque said soluble amorphous melamine powder tends to be deposited in human kidneys, which is not removed from the system with urine. "It turns into stones blocking the tubes. As a result pain is immense and the person can't urinate. Ultimately the kidney swells," he added.
Experts are even suggesting avoiding milk products such as infant formulas, candies, cheese powder, biscuits, ready made desserts, and chocolates.
Child specialists even suggest avoiding feeding babies powder milk or pure liquid cow’s milk until age two.
Child Specialist Abed Hossain Mollah of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told The Daily Star, "According to the Infant and Young Child Feeding, a guideline jointly formed by WHO and Unicef, children below two years of age should never be fed any type of artificial milk. Natural foods like khichuri, eggs and fruits should supplement breast milk"
Prof Mollah also suggested avoiding feeding babies cereals and pasteurised liquid cow's milk. He said, Till the age of six months only breast milk is the food for infants, hot even water should be given, let alone cereals. And there is every possibility of toxic formalin and contaminated water gettingmixed with cow'sliquid milk So why take the risk?"
Meanwhile, consumers in large numbers have been switching to pasteurised liquid milk.
But, the experts are alerting them to even avoid those, after newspapers published reports that substandard powdered milk is being mixed with liquid milk in Bangladesh.
There is every possibility of mixing cheap Chinese milk with dairy products and with pasteurised liquid milk as data says the country does not produce enough raw milk to meet the demand, the experts said.
The government must investigate where those substandard cheap milks are being produced and where they are going, they added.
Bangladesh imported 42,587 tonnes of milk powder from 11 countries in the last fiscal year, 4,747 tonnes of which were from Chinese companies.
On top of that, a few companies also import cheap melamine contaminated Chinese powdered milk illegally through unregistered channels, without any registration. The government recently initiated proceedings against five such illegal importers.
The experts also said the government should regularly investigate and inspect local producers and distnbutors of liquid milk and pow-h •alb™11' produc,s'oensure Public