China Says a 4th Child Dies From Toxic Milk Police Inquiry Widens With 12 More Arrests

By Edward Wong

Huang Yuanxi contributed research.

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The mayor of a city whose officials have been accused of failing to deal with reports of tainted baby milk was dismissed Thursday, and the Chinese government announced that a fourth infant had died after drinking contaminated milk and that the police had arrested a dozen more people in a widening investigation.

The mayor of Shijiazhuang, Ji Chuntang, was the most senior official to be fired so far in the growing scandal. Ji had been removed Wednesday from his post as deputy secretary of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Committee of the Communist Party, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

Shijiazhuang, in the northern province of Hebei, is the location of the headquarters of Sanlu Group, one of China’s largest dairy companies and the first company that was found to be selling toxic milk. The producer recalled 700 tons of it after determining Sept. 11 that it had been contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical.

Melamine can be combined with other chemicals to produce various plastics that are used in countertops, fabrics, glues, housewares and flame retardants. It is also used to make fertilizers.

Investigators have discovered traces of melamine in batches of powdered baby formula made by 22 dairy companies, all of which have said they were recalling their milk products. Producers trying to cut costs often dilute milk with water, but that lowers the nutrition level. The addition of melamine, which is high in nitrogen, helps the milk appear to meet nutrition standards by artificially raising its protein count.

Babies drinking the tainted milk over the course of several months have developed kidney stones or suffered kidney failure.

Chinese officials said more than 6,200 babies developed kidney stones after drinking Sanlu’s baby milk formula, and four have died. The latest death took place in a Mongolian area of Xinjiang, in China’s far west, Xinhua reported Thursday.

Eighty-six babies in the area fell ill after drinking tainted milk.

On Thursday night, China Central Television, the government network, reported that melamine had been found in liquid milk from three major brands.

Ji was dismissed in what appears to be a chain of neglect and cover-up that began with Sanlu, which is partly owned by a New Zealand company. Sanlu received complaints months ago about suspected problems in the milk, but waited until Aug. 2 to tell the Shijiazhuang city government, Hebei’s deputy governor said Wednesday. City officials waited until Sept. 9 to tell provincial officials, who did not inform the central government until the next day.

Some people have accused officials of hiding reports of bad milk so as not to mar the Olympic Games in Beijing, which ran from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24, and the Paralympics, which ended Wednesday.

Ji’s firing indicated that the political consequences of the scandal could mount as more information emerges on the role played by officials and as the death toll climbs. Four city officials were fired before Ji’s dismissal. The general manager of Sanlu, Tian Wenhua, has also been fired and was detained by the police. Angry parents have been gathering outside Sanlu’s headquarters in Shijiazhuang and are preparing to file lawsuits.

The police in Hebei Province have arrested 18 people, including six who sold melamine to milk producers, Xinhua reported. The others were milk producers who added melamine to their products and then sold the milk to dairy companies.

On Thursday, Hong Kong ordered the recall of the dairy products of Yili Industrial Group, based in Inner Mongolia, after tests found melamine in eight of the company’s 30 products.

The central government’s department in charge of consumer quality inspection said Wednesday that it was no longer exempting any companies from product testing. Previously, major companies with a long track record of making quality products could get an exemption.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2008 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.