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Author: Subject: Imported Chinese grain product linked to Pet Poisonings
Panache
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[*] posted on 18-3-2008 at 15:08


i wonder if the german-sherpard/alsatian farms in china that supply the booming asian fur trade use this food to save them having to kill the dogs mechanically by club wielding farm workers. They would kill two birds with one stone/club (pardon the pun).

Capital punishment doesn't fix a thing ever, in maybe a hundred years, hopefully sooner, school history lessons will teach how the overly simplistic, retribution-demanding societies of the 20th and 21st century actually 'killed' people. PLease challenge yourself and view the execution of this offical as a step backwards not forwards, because it is.

My first job after my PhD was working for a small american company (they make chocolate bars, par boiled rice lots of pet food) in a very very large pet food factory in country australia. I remember how devastating it was when through an inadvertent accident 25 cats were killed in the cattery by a leaking steam line. Its funny how attitude changes so much, this company is focused on the customer and realises that's its customers are also its staff and as such there was never ever the slightest notion of trying to forward profitability at the expense of the health of the cats and dogs, their well-being was so paramount to all involved. Compare this admirable attitude to that being discussed. This company has the ultimate luxury however as it is in private hands.
Blaming poorly qualified technicians disguises a larger endemic problem of unrealistic growth minimums set down by super funds for their investment in public companies operating in mature industries.
Mature industries cannot grow by 10%p.a, thats why they are know as mature, but if they don't show this growth the retirement funds pull their funds the share price bombs and all is fucked quickly instead of slowly. So instead pressure is slowly ramped on each and every individual in every public company.

As a whippet owner and lover this story is so disturbing I'm sickened, we are lucky to miss the effects of this one in Australia but i'm sure something else will arise for us.

Very sorry about your cat ozone, 8(





[Edited on 18-3-2008 by Panache]




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Rosco Bodine
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[*] posted on 18-3-2008 at 15:33


Ichthyology holds the answer for resolving the problem with product counterfeiters and adulterators ,
every time one is discovered ......

Shackle a cash register to one of their ankles and
toss them overboard to swim with the fishes .

Problem solved .
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Panache
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[*] posted on 19-3-2008 at 19:55


Or...
Make them watch every episode of American Idol from the first one, back to back, without allowing them to fall sleep and without any breaks. Immediately after this they have to go and audition for the show singing the theme from 'Chariots of Fire'. If they make it into the first pool of bright young talent then they can go free, otherwise they have to eat deep sea fish from the Sea of Japan while sitting at the bottom of said Sea lounging on a 44-gallon drum of radioactive waste from the 60's and talking to Yoko Ono.




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franklyn
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[*] posted on 17-9-2008 at 15:48
Whatever goes around comes around


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7620253.stm

Coming shortly on the heals of melamine formulated cereal for pet food exported to
the U.S., the chinese are now experiencing the tragic consequences of lackadaisical
efforts at monitoring the quality of even their own domestic food products. The late
vocal artist and musician Frank Zappa said it best " stupidity is it's own reward "

.
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Mr. Wizard
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[*] posted on 17-9-2008 at 16:25


The Chinese entrepreneur has little reason to play by the rules. A little bribe here and a favor or hooker , and it's all OK; typical third world corruption. Same as it ever was. If the US had any sense they would put a complete inspection of every Chinese product prior to entry to the US. Let the freighters stack up in the harbors for a few months, then we'll see who cries the loudest.

The reason it won't happen is the Chinese, like all the other large holders of US dollars, have bought special privileges with politicians with their money.

The addition of melamine tricks the protein test into reading higher levels, thus more profit.
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JohnWW
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[*] posted on 18-9-2008 at 02:09


In the last few days, a scandal has broken in China about the adulteration of baby milk powder formula with melamine, in a product supplied by a company in China that is 43% owned by Fonterra, the major New Zealand milk exporter which is one of the world's largest dairy products companies. Three infants have died of liver and kidney problems, and several thousand are ill due to it, mainly with kidney stones. All the milk powder involved, adulterated with melamine to give a false high protein content test, was produced in China, using technology supplied from New Zealand. The scandal, which had been known for several months, had been deliberately suppressed by the Chinese during the run-up and staging of the Olyumpic Games for political reasons. In the last few days, about 20 people, some of them high in the Communist Party, have been arrested for their parts in the scandal.
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7he3ngineer
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[*] posted on 18-9-2008 at 05:54


Actually it wasn't just suppressed by the Chinese, the bloody New Zealander who is CEO of the New Zealand bussiness that owns or runs the bussiness end of things (or something, can't quite remember now), has himself known for 6 weeks, but "has been doing everything he can" to get the product off the shelves.

Every thing he can my fury-pink arse:mad:

Since when has a nice media leak not been possible... now that gets results!

Josh




Engineers aren\'t boring people, we\'re just interested in boring things!
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Rosco Bodine
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[*] posted on 18-9-2008 at 21:51


Ironically now it seems like it would be safer for Chinese
babies to be fed dog food made in America than baby food made in China. I'm sure there must be a moral lesson
somewhere in that irony. But my more pragmatic nature
than philosophical inclines me towards desiring the making of an exception to the prohibition on cruel and unusal punishment for those who perpetrate such terrorism and murder by product tampering. When the guilty persons are apprehended, they should be caused to live their remaining life in "interesting times" .
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argyrium
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[*] posted on 20-9-2008 at 09:21


and yet another from our trading partners... a little dimethyl fumarate, anyone??


"French itch with complaints over Chinese chairs
Customers say recliners, sofas are causing allergic reactions and infections"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26796608/from/ET/
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JohnWW
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[*] posted on 27-9-2008 at 16:12


More about the Chinese baby milk powder formula adulterated with melamine to improve its apparent protein test (using the Kjeldahl and Dumas methods which assay the nitrogen content): 4 infants have now died, and 60,000 are now reported sick, mostly with kidney stones. Adulterated Chinese milk powder has been found to have been used in several lines of Chinese confectionery exported to other countries, particularly the sweet called "White Rabbit". A Chinese immigrant in Auckland, New Zealand, who liked buying it from a local Chinese delicatessen, suffered a very painful case of kidney stones recently. Meanwhile, in China, the milk powder company Su-Lu, partly owned by New Zealand's Fonterra (which itself knew nothing about the adulteration until after the Olympic Games), which was principally responsible for adulterating the Chinese-sourced milk powder with melamine, looks like going bankrupt.

Melamine is 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-triazine or 1,3,5-Triazine-2,4,6-triamine, a trimer of cyanamide, containing 66% nitrogen; see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_resin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_baby_milk_scandal

The stuff is reacted industrially with formaldehyde to make melamine resin or melamine formaldehyde, a hard, thermosetting plastic material, used widely as an imitation wood veneer, and melamine foam, a polymeric cleaning product. End products include countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, glues, housewares and flame retardants. Melamine is one of the major components in Pigment Yellow 150, a colorant in inks and plastics.

Other uses:
Melamine also enters the fabrication of melamine poly-sulfonate used as superplastizer for making high-resistance concrete. Sulfonated melamine formaldehyde (SMF) is a polymer used as cement admixture to reduce the water content in concrete while increasing the fluidity and the workability of the mix during its handling and pouring. It results in concrete with a lower porosity and a higher mechanical strength exhibiting an improved resistance to aggressive environments and a longer life-time.
The use of melamine as fertilizer for crops has been envisaged during the '50s and '60s because of its high nitrogen content (2/3). However, the hydrolysis reactions of melamine leading to the nitrogen mineralisation in soils are very slow, precluding a broad use of melamine as fertilizing agent.
Melamine derivatives of arsenical drugs are potentially important in the treatment of African trypanosomiasis.
Melamine use as non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle was described in a 1958 patent. In 1978, however, a study concluded that melamine "may not be an acceptable non-protein N source for ruminants" because its hydrolysis in cattle is slower and less complete than other nitrogen sources such as cottonseed meal and urea.

Toxic effects:
Melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid it can cause fatal kidney stones due to the formation of an insoluble melamine cyanurate. Melamine is reported to have an oral LD50 of >3000 mg/kg based on rat data. It is also an irritant when inhaled or in contact with the skin or eyes. The reported dermal LD50 is >1000 mg/kg for rabbits. In a 1945 study, large doses of melamine were given orally to rats, rabbits and dogs with "no significant toxic effects" observed. A study by USSR researchers in the 1980s suggested that melamine cyanurate, commonly used as a fire retardant), could be more toxic than either melamine or cyanuric acid alone. For rats and mice, the reported LD50 for melamine cyanurate was 4.1 g/kg (given inside the stomach) and 3.5 g/kg (via inhalation), compared to 6.0 and 4.3 g/kg for melamine and 7.7 and 3.4 g/kg for cyanuric acid, respectively. A toxicology study conducted after recalls of contaminated pet food concluded that the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in diet does lead to acute renal failure in cats.
Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer. A study in 1953 reported that dogs fed 3% melamine for a year had the following changes in their urine: (1) reduced specific gravity, (2) increased output, (3) melamine crystalluria, and (4) protein and occult blood. A survey commissioned by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians suggested that crystals formed in the kidneys melamine combined with cyanuric acid, "don't dissolve easily. They go away slowly, if at all, so there is the potential for chronic toxicity."

[Edited on 28-9-08 by JohnWW]

150px-Melamine.svg.png - 2kB
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