First Lawsuit Filed Over Infant Death From Tainted Milk
A lawsuit has been filed against one of China’s largest dairies on Monday by the family of a baby whose death they claim was caused by toxic milk supplied by the company.
The family’s lawyer said that Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., maker of the tainted milk products, was responsible for the May 1 death of 6-month-old Yi Kaixuan.
The lawsuit, which seeks nearly $160,000 in damages, is the first to be filed over a child who died from drinking the contaminated milk.
Individual farmers and milk collection stations stand accused of adding water to their milk to increase volume and adding the industrial chemical melamine to increase levels of protein. Melamine, used primarily in fertilizer and plastics, is high in nitrogen and can make milk seem to contain more protein during quality tests.
The practice is believed responsible for the deaths of four infants and the sickening of 54,000 others, with 10,000 remaining hospitalized.
Speaking on a television talk show Sunday evening, the president of Bright Dairy said his company, one of China’s largest, had been "too nice" toward milk collection stations that purchased milk from farmers.
Typically, such large dairy companies purchase raw milk gathered from small farmers at collection centers and milking stations, who often subcontract the safety testing. Safeguards were often lacking and producers have been criticized for not conducting proper testing.
Bright Dairy’s comments attempted to restore consumer confidence amid a scandal that has damaged the reputation of some of China’s best-known food companies.
"We thought they were operating in good conscience," Guo Benheng said on China’s state run television’s economics channel.
"I’d say we made an innocent mistake, although an innocent mistake is still a mistake. We are definitely making corrections," he said, according to a transcript posted Monday on official Web sites.
Appearing on the same show, Zhao Yuanhua, vice president of Mengniu Dairy, said the scandal had deeply affected the company.
"This sort of thing just tears your heart apart," he said.
Dong Junming, lawyer for the Yi family, said he has submitted the lawsuit at Lanzhou’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, where clerks said they would notify him Tuesday if it was accepted.
Since then at least two other lawsuits have been filed against Sanlu, the epicenter of the scandal, by parents of children suffering from kidney stones. It is unclear whether the courts will allow these suits to proceed.
Product liability lawsuits are still a rarity in China, and lawyers have spoken critically of government pressure to withdraw their cases.
Chinese milk powder and other food products are now prohibited from more than a dozen countries, aggravating a severe downturn in China’s critical export sector and threatening household incomes in the large, mostly poor countryside. The scandal has also dealt a blow to China’s work to build global brand names and establish vigorous business practices.
On Monday, newspapers reported that Chinese beverage-maker Hangzhou Wahaha Group was considering acquiring Sanlu Group’s dairy assets. Sanlu, which is 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, has been accused of attempting to cover up its melamine tainting practice. The company has already reduced the value of its investment, and the Chinese government suspended and took over Sanlu’s operations last month. Sanlu’s executives have since been detained for investigation.
China’s dairy industry has surged in recent years, and regulating structures to ensure quality and safety have not been kept up. Since the tainting scandal surfaced last month, strict standards for allowable melamine levels in food have been established, and 5,000 government inspectors are now dispatched to provide round the clock industry supervision.
Last week, authorities arrested a dairy farmer accused of producing 600 tons of melamine-spiked protein powder, with eight dairy farm owners and milk buyers also arrested for buying the tainted powder.