China Suspects Bad Milk Powder Sickened Babies

Chinese health officials said contaminated baby formula could be responsible for an unusual spate of kidney-stone cases that are afflicting dozens of infants across China, rekindling concern about safety problems with the country's products.

Officials are examining a suspicious increase in the number of infant kidney-stone cases in at least four provinces, the government said Thursday. In Gansu province, in China's northwest, 59 cases of kidney stones in infants have been reported so far this year -- including at least one related death, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. By comparison, there were no such cases reported in the previous two years in Gansu.

China's Ministry of Health, in a statement late Thursday, said that after an initial investigation it had a 'high degree of suspicion' that at least some of the cases were caused by ingestion of infant milk powder contaminated with melamine. Last year, melamine was found to be responsible for sickening or killing thousands of pets in the U.S., after the animals ate pet food containing a Chinese-made ingredient tainted with the industrial chemical.

It wasn't immediately clear if any of the possibly tainted baby formula has been exported. The Health Ministry said it suspects the contaminated formula was produced by Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., a dairy company based in Hebei province, and that Sanlu had announced a recall of all baby-milk powder produced before Aug. 6. Officials for Sanlu couldn't be reached for comment on the ministry's statement.

Speaking earlier Thursday, in response to Chinese media reports that many of the sick infants may have consumed Sanlu-branded formula, a Sanlu spokeswoman said the company was conducting its own nationwide investigation, and that results from lab analyses are still pending. 'There isn't necessarily a link between powdered milk and getting kidney stones,' the Sanlu spokeswoman said in a phone interview. 'Our products have passed quality certification and are in accordance with national standards.'

In 2006, Sanlu won a Chinese-government export license for its milk powder, according to a statement on its Web site. But it couldn't immediately be determined to which countries it ships formula, or whether any of the possibly tainted batch had been sold overseas. The Chinese health ministry said in its statement that it had notified the World Health Organization and 'relevant countries' about the situation generally, but did not single out Sanlu.

Underscoring the high stakes of the issue, however, the illnesses and the government's investigation were given prominent attention by the largely state-controlled media Thursday. The Health Ministry in its statement said that the State Council, China's cabinet, considered the issue 'highly important,' and said that other agencies have been dispatched to inspect Sanlu's production facilities and to examine stocks of milk powder throughout the country.

China's product safety came under intense scrutiny last year after a series of incidents involving tainted or unsafe toys, toothpaste, dumplings and other goods made in the country. The issues prompted calls in the U.S. and elsewhere for stepped-up checks of imports, and triggered harsh punishments by the Chinese government for some of those found to be responsible. That included the execution of the former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration for accepting bribes to approve drugs for the domestic market.

China has had problems at home with bad milk powder in the past. In 2004, 171 babies were hospitalized, and more than a dozen died, after consuming counterfeit milk powder that had little or no nutritional value. At the time, officials initiated a crackdown that resulted in hundreds of arrests of officials and businesspeople who allowed the sale of the formula.

Kidney stones are crystalline masses that, while generally treatable, can cause extremely painful blockages. They are relatively uncommon in babies, although they do occur often in premature infants.

It is unclear why the current spate of cases in China didn't receive attention sooner. The surge in numbers appears to have been dramatic in several locations: One doctor in the eastern city of Nanjing, in Jiangsu province, said he has seen more than 40 children with kidney stones in his hospital since July, compared with just five to seven such cases a year in the past.

In addition to Gansu and Jiangsu, Xinhua reported, similar kidney-stone cases have surfaced in central China's Hubei province and in Shaanxi province in the north. It reported that parents of some affected babies said they bought the milk at sharply discounted prices.