No signs of melamine in Sri Lanka

Health experts keep eyes open:

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

The Melamine contamination scandal reported from China has rocked the world with the latest scary news of four infant deaths and several others having fallen sick with stones in the kidney. Over 53,000 Chinese children are suffering from melamine related illnesses after drinking the toxic milk powder.

All eyes are now directed towards the China’s largest milk food producer ‘Sanlu Group’ with the allegation that melamine, which is white in appearance and used to manufacture fabrics, plastics and glue. It is said that melamine is used for diluting milk to cut costs then adding melamine to make its appearance rich with higher protein level.

While the Chinese super markets withdrew all the products suspected to be contaminated with melamine, the other Asian countries have started emptying the shelves with milk food from China.

However, according to reports the deadly milk powder crisis has now swept across South East Asia, especially in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Philippines and they have started to test, ban and recall Chinese dairy products.

Laboratory findings showed White Rabbit Creamy Candy from China is also contaminated with melamine, the city State’s government announced last Sunday.

“These products include milk, ice cream, yoghurt, confectionery such as chocolates, biscuits and sweets, as well as any other product containing milk from China as an ingredient,” the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said.

The retailers and importers have been told to recall these products and AVA said its tests first found melamine in samples of Yili brand iced yoghurt, and then in the Dutch Lady brand of strawberry-flavoured milk.

The Sri Lankan authorities keeping a sharp eye have now expedited their surveillance and monitoring all imported food stuff into the country.

The imported Food Inspection Unit of the Food Administration Unit under the Ministry of Health screening all imported milk food and its related food items have deployed its food inspectors to check whether the stocks contain melamine in any of these imported food stuff.

The Assistant Director of the Food Administration Unit P. Madarasinghe said that checking imported food stuff was a normal procedure but this was strengthen with the bad news about milk food contamination reported in China.

“No milk power is imported from China to Sri Lanka. We import milk food from New Zealand, Australia and India but milk power for manufacturing biscuits is imported from China”, he said.

According to Madarasinghe, all imported food items will be checked for microbients contamination, protein and fat levels and analytical reports from independent authorities before releasing the stocks.

“The country of origin is also a main consideration and now the stocks will be subjected for more checking when the food is imported from China”, he said.

He said that with the alleged contamination of milk power, the importers have been asked to submit a report from the ITI while the food inspectors of the Unit carry out random checks to detect melamine in the imported milk food.

Two containers full of milk food from China are now housed in ports but the stuff will be released after the full testing for melamine, he said adding that 42 varieties of milk powder collected from the local market have been sent to Singapore for further testing for melamine.

“We have now implemented a tough monitoring system and no container will be released to the market until all the tests show negative for melamine”, he said.

Madarasinghe said that since Sri Lanka does not have sophisticated technology for checking, they will follow the international standards which are followed in other countries.

“ Though we are away from the risk of consuming melamine contaminated milk powder, the best advice that we can give for the consumers is to drink fresh milk until the allegation about melamine laced milk powder issue is resolved.

Fresh milk is more safe and it will help to popularise fresh milk”, said an expert.

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With the news of China’s contaminated milk power scandal, the ‘Melamine’ has become the talk of the town of many Asian countries and also the West, today. Here are few frequently asked questions about this chemical:

What is melamine?

Melamine is a white powder used in plastic-making. Melamine is an organic compound that is often combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a synthetic polymer which is fire resistant and heat tolerant. Melamine resin is a very versatile material with a highly stable structure.

Uses for melamine include floor tiles, kitchenware, fire retardant fabrics, and commercial filters. Melamine resin is manufactured by mixing urea with formaldehyde under heat and pressure.It was first synthesised by a German scientist in the 1830s.

What is it used for?

Its most common form, melamine resin, a mix of melamine and formaldehyde, is used in the manufacture of formica, floor tiles, whiteboards and kitchenware. Melamine also plays a role in a wide range of flame resistant materials.

These include textiles used in upholstery and the uniforms worn by firemen. Thermal liners, heat resistant gloves, and aprons to protect from splashback of hot substances are made using melamine.

Melamine will protect a wearer from heat hazards, and will help to resist the spread of fire in aircraft and buses by providing a fire blocker.

Why add melamine to milk powder?

Melamine is rich in nitrogen, and relatively cheap. Adding it to sub-standard or watered-down milk makes the milk’s protein level appear higher. Standard quality tests estimate protein levels by measuring nitrogen content.

Is this why it was added to pet food?

Yes. Melamine was linked to the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States last year after it was added to wheat gluten and other pet food ingredients exported from China, in another attempt to boost the products’ apparent protein content.

Who has been affected by the toxic milk?

So far four infants have died in China, and about 13,000 more have been hospitalised after drinking the contaminated milk.

Four Hong Kong children have also become sick after consuming toxic Chinese milk powder.

More than 80 percent of the sick are under two years old. Young babies that depend solely on milk are most vulnerable.

What are the long-term health effects?

Little scientific information exists about the compound’s effects on humans.

However, even if victims who have developed have kidney stones due to tainted milk consumption have these removed, the melamine could crystallise in small kidney tubes and block connecting ducts, resulting in kidney damage or even renal failure, health experts fear.

Which countries are affected ?

More than 20 mostly Asian and African countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Britain, Brunei, Burundi, Canada, China, France, Gabon, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Vietnam, and Yemen — have all either pulled products off shelves, banned China dairy imports, or stepped up their products.

Courtesy: internet

Toddlers get post-trauma stress

Children as young as two experience post-traumatic stress, research shows. A study on 114 younger children who had been exposed to road traffic accidents in the UK found one in 10 suffered continued anxiety after the event.

Although this is similar to the rate seen in adults, most go unrecognised and untreated, say the King’s College London experts.

Their work is published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

One reason for the lack of knowledge about young children is the difficulty in making psychiatric diagnoses in this age group, as they frequently lack the language ability to talk about their feelings and experiences.

Children are quite resilient and often parents and close relatives are the best therapy Professor David Cottrell, of Young Minds.

And the tools used by doctors to spot and measure post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were designed with adults in mind.

The researchers, from King’s and the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Science Unit Cambridge, used an age-appropriate technique for diagnosing PTSD in the young children that relied on parents’ reporting of how their offspring were coping.

All of the 114 children aged between two and 10 had visited A&E departments in London after a road traffic accident.

Half had been passengers in a car, others were pedestrians or cyclists struck by a car, and all had relatively minor physical injuries.

At assessment in the month following the accident, and again six months later, more than 10% of the children met conditions for a diagnosis of PTSD.

These children had nightmares and difficulty sleeping, displayed avoidance behaviours, such as not wanting to go out in the car or walk on busy roads, and were described by their parents as “jumpy” and “on edge”.

Lead researcher Dr. Richard Meiser-Stedman, from King’s Institute of Psychiatry, said: “Our findings indicate that the mental health needs of pre-school children caught up in terrifying events should be considered by parents and health services.

“This is especially important as young children are not able to access health services on their own and are at such a vulnerable point in their development.

“More research is needed into how PTSD in young children should be treated and how parents can best help their offspring in the aftermath of a trauma.”

Professor David Cottrell, of Young Minds and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Leeds University, said: “Sadly, children experience a lot of traumatic events. However, it is important to remember that the vast majority of children will not develop symptoms and will not need any intervention after a stressful event.

“Children are quite resilient and often parents and close relatives are the best therapy.”

Gene link to poor reading skills

A common genetic variant may be partly to blame for poor reading ability, research suggests. The variant, carried by more than one in seven people, has already been associated with dyslexia.

Tests by the University of Oxford found people carrying the key sequence tended to perform worse than average in tests of their reading ability.

But the study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found no impact on general intelligence.

It’s important to note that this is only true for reading ability and not for IQ Dr. Silvia Paracchini University of Oxford. Previous research has identified at least six candidate genes that appear to influence the odds of developing dyslexia, a learning difficulty which affects the development of literacy and language skills.

The most likely of the candidates - implicated in at least three separate studies - is a gene called KIAA0319, which lies on chromosome six.

Previous work by the Oxford team, based at the Wellcome Trust Centre of Human Genetics, also suggested the gene may be involved in dyslexia.

Their work highlighted a sequence of DNA - called a haplotype - which included part of the key gene.

In the latest study, the Oxford team examined the link between this haplotype and reading abilility in a sample of 6,000 seven to nine-year old children taking part in a major long-term study known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Lead researcher Dr Silvia Paracchini said: “On average, people carrying this common genetic variant tended to perform poorly on tests of reading ability.

“However, it’s important to note that this is only true for reading ability and not for IQ, so it doesn’t appear to be connected to cognitive impairment.”

Dr. Paracchini said the effect of the genetic variant seemed to be small - but was statistically significant.

The Oxford team has previously shown that the same haplotype is linked to reduced activity of the KIAA0319 gene during development of the foetus.

In effect, it acts like a dimmer switch, reducing the power of the gene to do its normal job as the foetus grows. This affects development of the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain responsible for thought processes.

In animal studies, switching off KIAA0319 affects neuronal migration, the process that enables nerve cells created in the inner layer of the cerebral cortex area to migrate outwards to their final destination.

Dr Paracchini said: “This is clearly only part of the jigsaw puzzle that explains why some people have poorer reading ability than others or develop dyslexia.

“There are likely to be many other contributing factors, but our research provides some valuable clues. “We need to carry out studies into the exact role that this gene plays in brain development and how this affects people’s reading ability.”