Toxic Melamine in 8 brands of powdered milk found positive in Bangladesh

BAEC find vindicates DU melamine results
Govt finally discloses to court 7 out of 8 milk powder brands tested positive; govt's role comes under criticism; court ruling today
By Ershad Kamol of “The Daily Star”


The government yesterday disclosed to the High Court (HC) that Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) also had detected high concentration of toxic melamine in seven brands of powdered milk out of the eight tested so far.

The revelation raised questions among a cross-section of the people about the caretaker government's sincerity about ensuring public health as it had sat on the test results for a week instead of letting the worried consumers know about the findings.

The court is scheduled to pronounce a judgment on the melamine issue today.

On November 3 the government declared that melamine had been detected only in three Chinese powdered milk brands Yashili 1, Yashili 2, and Sweet Baby 2 in tests by a Thai and two local laboratories.

But at the time the government already had the BAEC test results in its hands which it decided to keep undisclosed.

The consumer confusion about melamine in powdered milk arose when about a month ago Health and Food Adviser Dr AMM Shawkat Ali opted to downplay a Dhaka University (DU) chemistry department test result that had detected melamine in eight brands of powdered milk including five popular ones.

Instead he and his government trusted the test results of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), and of a private laboratory Plasma Plus, both of which detected melamine in only Yashili 1 while failing to find trace of the substance in the remaining seven brands.

Later the samples of all eight brands were sent to the laboratories of Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), BAEC, and a FAO recognised private laboratory in Thailand for testing.

This time around BAEC detected melamine in seven of the brands while the other two laboratories found contamination only in the Chinese brands.
The government adviser said on November 3 that BAEC and the DU chemistry department are not capable of conducting complicated tests like finding melamine in milk.

He told The Daily Star about the BAEC lab, "It's good for detecting pesticides and radiation levels, but not for detecting melamine in milk," adding that the DU chemistry department also has similar limitations.

Criticising the government's move to keep the BAEC test results hushed for a week, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Chairman Prof Muzaffer Ahmad told The Daily Star yesterday, "It's a violation of the Right to Information Act which the government recently enacted. The persons responsible for hiding the information from the public should be put on trial according to the law."

"The government's role in such a complicated public health issue infers its lack of care for it. In fact, the government was hiding the facts for the welfare of the corrupt business community," he said.

Programme Officer of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Emdad Hossain said the way the government has been dealing with the melamine issue, is in violation of consumers' rights, because the consumers were kept in the dark about the confirmation of existence of a dangerously harmful substance in milk products they feed there children.

"People were in the dark and confused, as the government kept secret the test results. This is a blatant violation of consumers' rights, and very dangerous because of melamine's health implications," Hossain said.

The amounts of melamine detected by BAEC are 175.2 milligram per kilogram (mg/kg) in Yashili-1, 172 mg/kg in Yashili-2, 330.4 mg/kg in Sweet Baby-2, 171.3 mg/kg in Nido Fortified Instant, 478.3 mg/kg in Anlene, 287.4 mg/kg in Diploma, and 7.4 mg/kg in Dano Full Cream Milk.

However, BAEC did not detect any trace of melamine in Red Cow, which was found to be contaminated in the DU test.

Deputy Attorney General Rajik Al Jalil produced all test results to the HC yesterday, after the court had directed the government to do so.

Prof Nilufar Nahar, under whose leadership melamine was detected in the eight brands of powdered milk through a test in the DU chemistry department lab, said, "As a scientist I have a global reputation. The government should know my work before dismissing our department's abilities. I invite them to visit our laboratory and urge them to stop talking nonsense."

"The man who conducted the tests in Plasma Plus and the two others who tested the samples in BCSIR had been researchers under my supervision. I know the mistakes they made in their tests. The government should be ashamed of its blatant kowtowing to the interests of the unscrupulous industry, and for pitting novice chemists against the nation's top scientists."

She also questioned the authenticity of the test results from the Thai laboratory, saying, "It's a FAO recognised private laboratory, not FAO's own lab, moreover the report is incomplete." The report of the Thai lab did not elaborate on the methodology of its tests, she added.

"Local distributors of powdered milk brands should apologise to the public instead of trying to hide the facts, and at the same time they should ask the Chinese company Sanlu to compensate them for the loss of their business," she suggested.

Meanwhile, BSTI has been briefing the media on the 'safe level of melamine contamination', instead of warning the public about its disastrous impact on health, especially on children's health.

Four children died in China due to kidney stones that occurred from being fed melamine contaminated milk, while 53,000 others are currently suffering from kidney failures due to the same reason.