According to a news source, former Sanlu Group chairwoman Tian Wenhua has appealed the life sentence she received after she entered a guilty plea to charges arising out of the melamine-tainted milk scandal in China that sickened hundreds of thousands of children and led to a number of deaths. Tian’s lawyer reportedly contends that his client did not make the decision to sell the tainted milk and that the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court had insufficient evidence to support a conviction for manufacturing and selling fake or substandard products. The appeal will be heard by the Higher People’s Court of Hebei Province. See Jurist, February 1, 2009.
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More than 200 Chinese families whose children were sickened after consuming melamine-contaminated milk products have reportedly filed suit against a group of 22 milk producers before the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing. Earlier class action suits filed in Chinese courts were not accepted, so it is unclear whether this action will proceed. According to Lin Zheng, who is coordinating the litigation for a group of volunteer lawyers, this lawsuit includes four dead children not previously accounted for in government statistics. Lin also indicated that the lawyers will file another lawsuit on behalf of the survivors of a fifth unacknowledged dead child. The government reported that six children died and nearly 300,000 became ill with kidney stones and other problems. The latest action includes a demand for more than $5.2 million in compensation. In a related development, a dairy middleman, convicted of selling 600 tons of melamine-tainted “protein powder” to dairy companies,…
Hundreds of parents of children sickened in China by melamine-contaminated milk products have reportedly rejected the government-sanctioned compensation offer, which would have provided about US$29,000 to families that lost a child and US$4,380 for each child with serious kidney damage. The parents, who are gathering signatures in support of their demands, will instead seek long-term health care for those affected and research into the health effects that purportedly continue to afflict tens of thousands of children. They also apparently complain that the offer provides nothing for children older than age 3 and will not provide assistance to the dozens of families facing significant hospital bills. Zhao Lianhai, whose 4-year-old son was sickened, reportedly said in an interview, “Our biggest demand is not the compensation but medical treatment and academic research on the influence that melamine will have on the health of our children. We want to know what kinds of…
While a federal district court approved the settlement of class claims that melamine-tainted dog and cat food sickened and/or killed tens of thousands of pets in the United States, the pet owners who were expecting compensation in 2009 will apparently have to await the outcome of two separate appeals filed in December 2008. According to the claims administrator’s Web site, “No payments will be made on eligible claims until all appeals are resolved. It is uncertain how long these appeals will take to resolve, and the timing of resolving the appeals is not within the control of the parties or their counsel. It is not uncommon for appeals to take several months or even years to resolve.” As noted in issues 275 and 283 of this Update, those dissatisfied with the settlement have claimed that (i) it will foreclose their ability to recover for their separate claims that pet food…
FDA has reportedly detected the industrial chemical melamine and its byproduct cyanuric acid in additional cans of U.S.-manufactured infant formula, but stressed that the levels are below the safety threshold set for young children and infants. Four of the 89 infant formula products tested by FDA contained trace amounts of melamine or cyanuric acid, which are used during the manufacturing process as disinfectants and in some food packaging. FDA and other food safety experts have apparently stated that this trace contamination most likely occurred during processing and not as the result of intentional adulteration. See Food & Water Watch Blog, January 5, 2009; The Associated Press, January 7, 2009. Meanwhile, Chinese courts started criminal trials for six cattle farmers and milk collectors accused of making melamine protein powder and adding it to raw milk sold to Chinese dairies, including the government-owned Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. Sanlu recently declared bankruptcy as a…
A Chinese court has reportedly refused to accept a lawsuit filed by dozens of families whose children were sickened or died from consuming infant formula contaminated with melamine. Apparently the first-known group lawsuit to arise in the wake of the scandal, the complaint sought nearly US$2 million from the state-owned Sanlu Group Co., the dairy company that allegedly produced the tainted products. According to a news source, Chinese courts often turn down group suits, preferring to deal with individual cases and avoid angering party officials. Some one dozen individual cases are currently pending in courts around the country, but they have not yet been accepted. A lawyer for the affected families reportedly indicated that the group lawsuit was ostensibly not accepted because government departments are still investigating. See Associated Press, December 8, 2008.
WHO experts have reportedly determined that a tolerable daily intake (TDI) of melamine is 0.2 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg bw/d). This threshold is lower than the one recently adopted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which accepts 0.63 mg/kg bw/d as an appropriate TDI for dietary melamine. The WHO standard is also more stringent than the TDIs used in both Europe (0.5 mg/kg mw/d) and Canada (0.35 mg/kg bw/d). Although the organization felt that the U.S. measure provides an acceptable margin of safety, it nevertheless stressed that melamine is not ever considered “safe” for consumption. “Melamine is a contaminant that should not be in food. However, sometimes it is unavoidable,” said WHO in a statement. “TDI represents the tolerable amount of unavoidable contaminant in food that a person can ingest on a daily basis without appreciable health risks.” See Bloomberg.com, December 6, 2008; Law360, December…
China has reportedly estimated that nearly 300,000 infants were sickened and six died after ingesting melamine-tainted formula linked to kidney stones and renal failure. The government has increased the number of illnesses six-fold from its first calculations and doubled the death toll as the Health Ministry investigated fatalities purportedly involving infant formula. “The new figures are more realistic and objective than previous figures,” said one Beijing lawyer who represents several families seeking compensation and is considering the creation of a public fund for victims. “I assume the government is worried about the situation of the dairies and is afraid the companies may fall if they have to pay compensation amid the current financial crisis. The government may be worrying about the interests of the companies first.” See Associated Press, December 2, 2008. In a related development, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently updated its safety assessment for melamine and…
This op-ed article examines the widespread presence of melamine in U.S. agriculture, claiming that despite China’s highly publicized problems with the industrial plasticizer, “what the American consumers and government agencies have studiously failed to scrutinize is how much melamine has pervaded our own food system.” James McWilliams, a history professor at Texas State University at San Marcos, argues that the recent spate of melamine-related incidents “points to the much larger relationship between industrial waste and American food production.” He notes that melamine is routinely added to domestic fertilizers “because it helps control the rate at which nitrogen seeps into the soil,” where it then accumulates as salt crystals that mix with other nutrients essential to crops. In addition, McWilliams warns that the “Byzantine reality” of global food networks makes it nearly impossible to ensure that all imported products are safe. McWilliams recommends that even as it scrutinizes China’s promise to…
A multidistrict litigation (MDL) court in New Jersey has entered an order approving the settlement of claims that pet food contaminated with melamine and cyanuric acid sickened and killed thousands of cats and dogs in the United States. In re Pet Food Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 1950 (D.N.J., filed November 18, 2008). In its 65-page opinion, the court certified the class for settlement purposes and approved an award of $24 million to the plaintiffs and nearly $6.4 million in attorney’s fees. The court also denied a motion to intervene, overruled several objections and granted a motion to strike a separate motion for attorney’s fees. Pet owners will be eligible for documented economic damages, such as veterinary bills, cremation, burial services, costs of new pets, and healthy pet screenings. Claims without documentation will be paid up to a maximum of $900 for each claimant. If the claims exceed the available funds,…
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