China milk powder blamed for 'baby breasts'
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BEIJING (AFP) - – China's health ministry said Tuesday it had ordered food safety authorities in central Hubei province to investigate claims that milk powder has caused infant girls to grow breasts.
Officials had already begun tests on the baby formula after parents and doctors expressed fears that hormones in the milk powder made by NASDAQ-listed Synutra had caused babies to develop breasts.
"The Ministry of Health had attached great importance to this issue," spokesman Deng Haihua told a news conference, according to a transcript.
Local food safety authorities had earlier refused a parent's request to investigate the formula made by Synutra, based in the eastern city of Qingdao, saying they did not conduct tests at consumers' behest, state media reported.
Medical tests indicated the levels of hormones in three girls, ranging in age from four- to 15-months and who were fed the same baby formula, exceeded those of the average adult woman, China Daily reported on Monday.
A fourth case was reported in Beijing, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
The ministry said medical experts were also assisting a separate medical investigation into the cause of the infants' condition.
Synutra insisted in a statement that its products were safe and that no man-made hormones or illegal substances had been added during production.
The company's shares plunged 27 percent on Monday in New York to 12.72 dollars, their steepest fall since China's 2008 tainted milk scandal.
Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide in 2008 after it was found that melamine, which is used to make plastics, was widely and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of higher protein.
Melamine was found in the products of 22 Chinese dairy companies in a massive scandal blamed for the deaths of at least six infants and for sickening 300,000 others in China.
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Good news for ladyboys.
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China again -
just need to take 1 more generation before eating china made stuff.........they can be largerest economies.....but seriously does the world only look at numbers?
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China widens milk tests
SHANGHAI - CHINA is expanding an investigation into reports of hormone-tainted milk powder by testing a range of infant milk powders and breast milk, state media said on Saturday, the latest food scare to hit the country.
The Ministry of Health launched the probe following complaints that tainted milk powder had caused baby girls to show signs of premature sexual development.
The Ministry said it would test baby-formula maker Synutra International as well as other brands to compare the level of estrogen in dairy products, the People's Daily reported on its website. 'In order to guarantee that the milk powder tests are safe and reliable, this time the Ministry of Health has chosen Beijing and Shanghai to test the products,' Liang Li, a medical expert, who is also a member of the investigation panel of the Ministry, was quoted as saying.
Shares of Synutra, a Chinese firm, plunged as much as 35 per cent earlier this week, but stabilised after the company denied the reports and said it was in the process of taking legal action to protect its brand.
Even if the allegations prove to be unfounded, the concerns about exposure to tainted milk products has underscored the persistence of food safety problems that have alarmed consumers, undermined China's global image and sparked criminal cases.
Two years ago, China was plagued with a melamine scandal when at least six children died and nearly 300,000 became ill from drinking powdered milk laced with melamine, an industrial compound added to fool inspectors by giving misleadingly high results in protein tests. -- REUTERS
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I dun dare buy china food products now, dunno will tio poison or not
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I think no need go hospital do breast implant or inject female hormones to grow breasts liao... Just drink milk from China.
Cheaper, Better, Faster -
Breasts not caused by milk
BEIJING - CHINA'S health ministry said an investigation had found no evidence that milk powder produced by a Chinese company caused three infant girls to grow breasts, state media reported on Sunday.
The findings of the clinical investigation were announced by the health ministry in Bejing, the official Xinhua news agency and Wangyi news website said.
Authorities in the central province of Hubei had been ordered to investigate baby formula after parents and doctors expressed fears that hormones in the powder made by Nasdaq-listed Synutra had caused babies to develop breasts prematurely.
Local food safety authorities had earlier refused a parent's request to investigate the formula made by Synutra, based in the eastern city of Qingdao, saying they did not conduct tests at consumers' behest, state media reported.
Medical tests indicated the levels of hormones in three girls, ranging in age from four- to 15-months and who were fed the same baby formula, exceeded those of the average adult woman, the China Daily reported last week. A fourth case was reported in Beijing, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
The ministry said previously that medical experts were also assisting a separate medical investigation into the cause of the infants' condition. Synutra insisted in a statement that its products were safe and that no man-made hormones or illegal substances had been added during production. -- AFP