Milk poisoning incidents in all over the world mainly in china make everyone afraid for food.Always the reports are changing. No one can clearly inform us what to eat and not.
Poisened milk is the milk powder mixed with “MELAMINE”.Melamine is an organic chemical with the C3H6N6 formula. There are 3 amine (-NH2) groups in Melamine.Melamine is an industrial chemical use in the production of “melawares”.It is also used in home decorations.So, Melamine is used in industrial productions.The most important nutrient in milk is protein.That is the reason traders add melamine to milk.The amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) found in protein contains an amine (-NH2) group. All amino acids have the amine group(–NH2) as part of its chemical structure. As an example, in Glycine, an amino acid (NH2CH2COOH) and in Alanine, another amino acid (HO2CCHNH2CH3), the -NH2 amine group is apparent. According to the chemical structure of Melamine, it contains 3 amine (-NH2) groups. When milk protein and Melamine are together, it cannot be detected using “Kjeldah method “; the old method used to measure the protein amount in milk by looking for the amine (-NH2) group. Kjeldah method can only detect Crude proteins which contain “Nitrogen” in proteins and “Nitrogen” in non proteins.
So adding Melamine in milk reduces milk content and it is cheaper than milk. Then, it lowers capitalization. It can give more profit to the businessman. Considering all facts we can conclude that the introduction of Melamine into milk powder is intentional but surely not accidental.
Below is a picture of Melamine powder. Doesn’t it look like milk? It doesn’t have any smell, so cannot be detected.
It was discovered in year 2007 US cats and dogs died without any apparent reason, and they found that pet food from China contains Melamine.
Starting 2008, In China, an abnormal increase in infant cases of kidney stones.
In August 2008-China Sanlu Milk Powder tested with Melamine.
In September 2008-New Zealand government asks China to check this problem.
In September 21, 2008-Lots of food products in Taiwan tested with Melamine.
When Melamine enters into the body, a portion of it is eliminated and a portion of it participates in chemical reactions and converts into other chemical compounds such as cyanuric acid, ammeline and ammelide which are not supposed to be found in human body.
These chemicals can enter human body in 2 ways. The first way is they can be ingested along with the Melamine. The second way is that Melamine can be converted to these compounds after it is ingested.
Cyanuric acid, ammeline, ammelide are found in laboratory synthesis of Melamine. The first step in Melamine synthesis is ammeline synthesis from urea. Further hydrolysis of ammeline yields ammelide and the thermal decomposition of Melamine produces cyanuric acid.
The biochemical pathways in human metabolism to facilitate the conversion of Melamine into cyanuric acid, ammeline and ammelide cannot be easily identified. Because the large variety of microbial organisms inhabiting in the intestinal tract including beneficial and non-beneficial bacteria and yeast have a metabolism of their own. They are capable to synthesize and break down chemical compounds that humans cannot. And there are some bacteria that have specialized enzymes such as Melamine Deaminase, Atrazine Chlorohydrolase which can break down Melamine into various compounds like cyanuric acid, ammeline and ammelide.
Cyanuric acid is most commonly used as a chlorine stabilizer in swimming pools. It is toxic to the kidneys. The combination of cyanuric acid and Melamine crystallizes in the kidneys and causes kidney stones to be formed. The crystals block the tubules in the kidneys and lead to kidney failure. Pain will be eminent and person cannot urinate. Kidney will then swell.
Although surgery can remove the stones, but it will cause irreversible kidney damage. It can lead to loss of kidney function and will require kidney dialysis or lead to death because of uremia.
Generally, dialysis is called as “blood washing”. It is filtering all of the body’s blood into a machine and then goes back to the body. A small hole is cut in the arm to insert the sub-dialysis catheter.
The whole process takes 4 hours and it is necessary to dialysis once for every 3 days for the rest of the life for survival.
This condition is most serious to babies because their kidneys are very small and they drink a lot of milk powder.
Also in Sri Lanka, some companies are forbidden to sell their products base on the allegation of their foods contain Melamine. Here in Sri Lanka we haven’t sufficient laboratory facilities to do Melamine tests. But some companies did Melamine tests with the help of foreign laboratories and issued their laboratory reports to the public.
But deception is not an uncommon practice for traders. So,NO ONE IS SAFE.
Reference:
• Based on a survey done by
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fun_and_fun_only/s=rveys?id=2139003
http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_250440.html
http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/vol73/volume73.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/menufoodrecallfaq.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_baby_milk_scandal
A special gratitude to:Professor Priyani Paranagama, Department of Chemistry, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
• An article by - Bhagya Kodithuwakku.
