I copied some of the relevant details from the news story to make two
points:

a) the government is blaming the victims of this scam for being naïve enough
to believe what was on the label;

b) the government allowed this situation to continue for at least a year
before alerting the public.

The Chinese government, whose job it is to protect its citizens from
unscrupulous marketing practices, has lost sight of this essential role.
The same is true for the U.S. government, which did not go forward with the
US Breastfeeding Ad Campaign because it was more motivated by the formula
corporations' fear of losing $3 billion in sales than it was by its own
estimated savings to the consumer of more than $3 billion in health care
costs.

Arly Helm, MS, IBCLC



Headline: Fake milk formula kills infants 
April 20, 2004

DOZENS of infants in eastern China have died from malnutrition after being
fed fake milk formula with virtually no nutritional value....

Up to 200 babies who were fed the formula developed... "big head
disease"...Some babies died within three days of being fed the formula,
while others were hospitalized after parents discovered their children were
sick. One of dead babies was a 130-day old girl who was found to be
suffering serious nutritional deficiency and liver and kidney malfunction.

The report said government officials did not alert the public despite the
large number of babies falling ill.

...from April last year, about 50 to 60 infants died from malnutrition after
being fed the formula. That number could rise... 

... Chinese with little money and understanding of the risks are the most
common victims...

Some formula contained less than 1 gram (0.035 ounces) of protein per 100
grams (3.5 ounces), about 1/18th of the standard content, said a specialist
with the Fuyang Health Department's Food Supervision Bureau. Important
minerals such as iron and zinc were completely missing, said the specialist,
...She said the cheats had taken advantage of rural consumers' naivete about
health and consumer issues.

"Rural people are very vulnerable. They don't ask for receipts, don't
suspect the authenticity of products and are more liable to be cheated," she
said.

Approval seals and other documentation on packaging was usually false, she
said. Letters to manufacturers were returned because they invented addresses
listed on packaging, she said....

Inspectors recorded at least three dozen different brands of fake formula,
the reports said. One, Aumeng Brand... contained just one-sixth the standard
protein content, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. 

The Associated Press

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