Utterly Appaling — Melamine in Formula
I’m in shock, although I shouldn’t be.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457710,00.html
Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe.
The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a “dangerous overreaction” for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.
“The levels that we are detecting are extremely low,” said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “They should not be changing the diet. If they’ve been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That’s in the best interest of the baby.”
Sundlof told the AP the positive test results “so far are in the trace range, and from a public health or infant health perspective, we consider those to be perfectly fine.”
That’s different from the impression of zero tolerance the agency left on Oct. 3, when it stated: “FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns.”
FDA scientists said then that they couldn’t set an acceptable level of melamine exposure in infant formula because science hadn’t had enough time to understand the chemical’s effects on infants’ underdeveloped kidneys. Plus, there is the complicating factor that infant formula often constitutes a newborn’s entire diet.
I am speechless. Temporarily. And then I’m gonna start screaming. I have never seen a clearer declaration that the government doesn’t care if your babies are damaged. I think this is also about as clear a call to action as I’ve ever seen for mother-to-mother milk sharing.
