The FDA did little to allay fears this week that it was mishandling the tainted milk scandal, but the WHO says it acted properly
Erika Fry and Tunya Sukpanich
Concerned about the Chinese tainted milk scare, Suvapa took her three-year-old son to see his doctor for advice two weeks ago. To her the surprise, the doctor said, "Don't worry, the problem will not come here."
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| ATTRACTING ATTENTION: Dutch Mill drinking products are seen on shelves at a supermarket in Bangkok. The FDA found melamine in 20 tonnes of milk powder imported by the company. |
The 30-year-old mother was not convinced by the doctor's assurances. She learned from TV and newspaper reports the melamine-tainted milk had killed at least four babies and left 53,000 ill with kidney problems across China. She had seen countries from Brunei to Burundi taking bold precautions by banning Chinese products from their shelves.
One of her friends told her to avoid powdered milk from a New Zealand exporter, which had a major stake in the Sanlu Group, now at the centre of China's tainted baby formula scandal.
For peace of mind, it was the second opinion - however non-professional - Supava was more apt to take on the matter.
Supava was one of several housewives interviewed by Spectrum this week, all of whom agreed that the Thai government should have done more to keep the Thai public informed about the problem.
"Recent announcements from the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] focused on dairy products, ice cream, chocolate, snacks and candies," said Suvapa. "As a mother, I want to know whether all powdered milk brands on sale here are safe for consumption.
"But Thais are not too concerned about food safety, are they?" she added with a tinge of sarcasm.
Public Health Minister Chalerm Yubamrung did little to convince consumers otherwise when, seeking to downplay the milk scandal last Wednesday, he spoke more on the health of trade relations, than of, well, health.
He warned the issue could affect Thai-Chinese trade ties, and stressed that Thailand needs to closely inspect imports of powdered milk from all countries, not just China, to ensure safey standards are maintained.
Minister Chalerm's position was echoed by FDA deputy secretarty-general Narangsan Peerakit, who then evaded further questions from reporters, saying that "the minister's policy is that news reports should not have a negative impact on Chinese products".
It's little wonder many Thai consumers were left grumbling for a second opinion.
Yet, a closer look at the FDA's actions over the past weeks suggest their efforts have been derided more for poor public relations, than proper action.
While consumer advocates and members of the public have been critical of the government's handling of situation - calling it too slow and too conservative - the World Health Organization (WHO) gives Thailand's Ministry of Health and FDA more favourable reviews, saying health officials have been quick, appropriate, and even proactive in their response.
"In our view, they've done all the right things," says Maureen Birmingham, WHO's Head of Mission in Thailand.
She says Thailand began its investigation efforts, which included conducting a risk assessment, checking imports, collecting samples for testing and meeting retailers, as soon as word was received of the alert from WHO's food safety network.
She also noted that Thai retailers, who also have a lot at stake, have been exceptionally cooperative in the process and have inundated the FDA with products to test. As of Thursday, there were more than 100 products that were awaiting screening.
Officials have maintained an "active communication channel" with the WHO throughout the ordeal, and often pressed the international organisation for more information regarding products tested in other countries, she added.
While she noted that informal trade and border markets pose challenges to guaranteeing food safety, she credited Thai officials for being mindful and diligent in monitoring these border points (See sidebar).
"They've been out at the border, looking themselves, taking samples." She adds they've also alerted pediatricians to watch for cases in infants that might signal a melamine-related illness caused by smuggled formula.
Part of the PR problem and a lot of the confusion may stem from the unprecedented and complicated nature of the melamine scare.
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DEADLY COMBO
While melamine has been found to have low toxicity on its own, the chemical in combination with another chemical, cyanuric, produces a toxicity that can lead to kidney failure. This was found to be the case in the US last year, when there was an outbreak of renal failure in cats and dogs that had consumed melamine-contaminated pet food.
Laboratory tests on rats have also shown that tumours are significantly associated with the development of bladder calculi and are related to the administration of high melamine doses.
To date, there have been no studies of how this combined toxicity affects humans, and food and drug agencies around the world were left with the pet incident data and a game of mathematical guesswork to figure "tolerable daily intake" (TDI) of melamine values as China's tainted-milk situation unfolded.
"There is an evolving question of what is safe," says Birmingham.
Because melamine is a chemical used in plastics, microwave containers and fertiliser, it is not unusual to find trace amounts of melamine in animal feed and foods. Thus pulling all products found to contain the chemical was neither a practical nor necessary action for monitoring agencies.
Nirat Tiasuwan, director of the FDA's public and consumer affairs division says of melamine: "It is not genotoxic, meaning it will not cause tumour development or genetic mutation. Melamine is part of industry and agriculture, and so it is in the food. Therefore, there is a possibility of contamination. With low levels, and with its low toxicity, it would not harm people," he says, adding the death and illness of children in China came from products with high levels of contamination.
Instead of banning products containing the chemical, governments conducted risk assessments and ballparked a "level of concern" for specific food products - the EU came up with 0.5mg/kg of body weight, while the US gives a rate of 0.63mg/kg - which have become the basis for determining the safety of products.
Dr Thippawan Prinyasiri, director of FDA's food division, explained the FDA has closely studied melamine-related safety standards from around the world, and is determining its own standard. Once this benchmark is established, food importers will have to provide concerned Thai authorities a certified document from a government body or reliable agency in the country of origin of the level of melamine in the imported food products.
While Thassanee Nan-udorn of the Foundation for Consumers was satisfied by the government's standards in terms of consumer protection, she believes the government did not respond quickly enough to the situation.
She also hopes the FDA will improve its monitoring and testing system, particularly at the border ports in Chiang Rai province where a large number of goods from China, Burma and Laos are unloaded.
"Authorities have to closely follow cases from many other countries and set a strict monitoring programme and necessary regulations, as preventive measures," she said, citing China's record of harmful and counterfeit exports.
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INFANT SUSCEPTIBILITY
Another point of confusion has been over the relative safety of products.
The tens of thousands of babies that fell in China had been exposed to infant formula, in which melamine had been added to raise the protein content. In the wake of the scandal, other Chinese dairy products were tested. Roughly 12 per cent of them, coming from 20 different companies, were found to also be contaminated with melamine.
While these products have so far, not been linked to human illness (they have however been linked to kidney stones in two orangutans and a lion cub in a Chinese zoo), the revelation quickly sparked a sweeping international hunt for goods produced with Chinese-manufactured milk powder.
In Singapore, White Rabbit candies (of which the Singaporean government found an adult could safely eat 47) and grated cheese used in Taiwanese Pizza Huts were found to be among the contaminated food items, while fears of melamine-tainted Mentos, M&Ms, and Oreo cookie filling led retailers to temporarily clear shelves while the products were screened by agencies. All were found to be safe.
In Thailand, the FDA pulled more than a hundred products for screening and impounded 100 tonnes of Chinese-made Dutch Mill milk powder, after two samples were found to contain melamine.
According to EU and US standards, one or both of the products contained a "safe" level of melamine, but they have not yet been cleared for use. Meanwhile, companies like Dumex, which manufactures baby formula from milk products supplied by the Netherlands, have been testing their own products for melamine content, as a means to earn customer confidence.
According to a report from the Customs Department, Thailand imported 175 tonnes of milk powder, worth 21 million baht from China in August. The total since January has been 375 tonnes, worth 47 million baht.
A critical point, and one that the FDA may not have made clear, or that anxious parents may have missed in the rapidly evolving ordeal, is that none of these imports were baby formula.
According to the FDA, Thailand does not import Chinese-manufactured infant formula, only powdered milk, which is used in other food production, which is why their food safety statements through the course of the scandal have been focused on candies, chocolates, and cookie filling, and not baby formula.
Certainly, there is a difference between adults (or even growing children) eating mentos sweets and babies consuming infant formula, and perhaps this is a point that, rather than talk of preserving trade ties, would have been worthwhile to make as well in the effort to quell public panic.
For this reason, Associate Professor Dr Kaew Kangsadalampai of Mahidol University's Institute of Nutrition takes issue with the way these standards have been explained to the public.
''Local newspapers have reported that European Union standards allow an intake of 0.5mg/kg of body weight per day, meaning that consumers would need to drink more than 1,000 litres of milk a day to be in danger.
''This statement is misleading because the effects of melamine intake on adults and infants are not the same,'' he said. ''Considering a 5kg infant, the tolerable amount of melamine would be 2.5mg per day. This amount would be reached when consuming 750ml liquid (or reconstituted) formula contaminated at a level around 3.3mg/l
[ppm]. For comparison, the Sanlu product incriminated in the cases in China was contaminated at a level of over 2,500mg/kg powder, corresponding to approximately 350ppm in reconstituted product (assuming a seven-fold reconstitution factor).''
Kaew, however, takes a more conservative approach than the FDA, contending that melamine, by itself, could crystallise in small kidney tubes and block connecting ducts, and argues that because of the increasing number of Thais suffering kidney problems, ''we should ban melamine in food products.''
''We can produce our own milk, why should we put the lives of our consumers at risk?'' he added.
Kaew says the tainted milk episode should be taken as a greater lesson on the gaps in food safety.
In addition to powdered milk and dairy products, he said Thailand should test vegetables and fruits imported from China. Consumption of a high amount of nitrate, which is found in fruit and vegetable fertiliser, can cause cancer.
''This is a very serious problem, but no Thai government has allocated enough budget and manpower to test food products for their safety. Megaprojects seem to be the top priority now. I think we should avoid food products from China for the time being.''
Of course, Thailand's food safety issues are not all foreign borne. While Birmingham says Thailand's record is ''quite reasonable'', she notes there have periodically been food safety incidents.
Kaew used stronger language: ''Thailand must clean up its own house as well. However, if real lab tests were done, government authorities might find so many toxic substances that nothing here would be considered safe for consumption.''
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