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Dec. 25th, 2008
Chinese bureaucracy
Dec. 25th, 2008 08:41 pmThe New England Journal of Medicine has an article on "Melamine and the Global Implications of Food Contamination". The paragraph that stands out:
"But why would one intentionally add a nonnutritious substance such as melamine to food? Nitrogen content has long been used as a surrogate for assessing the protein content of foods, and melamine contains a substantial amount of nitrogen — 66% by mass. Before the current melamine disaster, the marked dilution of infant formula in China had resulted in marasmus in some infants,1 which led to government directives to increase the protein content of such preparations or risk severe penalties. Thus, it is possible that the adulteration was conceived in response to a well-intentioned government directive."
This reads like really bad propaganda from the 1950s--except that it's not. It was a real, actual, 21st Century event. And it's not over. The end of the article makes this pronouncement: "...the long-term health effects remain unknown."
"But why would one intentionally add a nonnutritious substance such as melamine to food? Nitrogen content has long been used as a surrogate for assessing the protein content of foods, and melamine contains a substantial amount of nitrogen — 66% by mass. Before the current melamine disaster, the marked dilution of infant formula in China had resulted in marasmus in some infants,1 which led to government directives to increase the protein content of such preparations or risk severe penalties. Thus, it is possible that the adulteration was conceived in response to a well-intentioned government directive."
This reads like really bad propaganda from the 1950s--except that it's not. It was a real, actual, 21st Century event. And it's not over. The end of the article makes this pronouncement: "...the long-term health effects remain unknown."