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Melamine & the sanity of WHO calculations

Shenali Waduge

If not for the deaths of 4 children & the health risks that affected 54,000 other children in China, the world would have been blissfully oblivious to the fact that we are daily consuming melamine - a component used to manufacture plastics.

It now emerges that melamine has been used rampantly to increase the level of protein in food items - dairy products, milk powder, formula milk, ice cream, yoghurt, biscuits, confectionery & even fertilizers. It seems we have all been duped by companies. As companies scamper to use their propaganda machinery to vilify themselves in the eyes of the public & win the hearts of the disappointed & worried public we can but wonder at the ethics that these companies have followed.

To make matters worse the World Health Organization in its guidelines is saying that a maximum of 2.5ppm melamine content can be included in a product. The WHO also states that an adult weighing 50kg can tolerate only 25 milligrams of melamine per day, and a baby weighing 5kg could cope with up to 2.5mg per day. What if a child or an adult consumes varying products daily & the melamine content accumulates over a week or month ...how adversely are our children likely to get affected?

Do companies really need to add melamine to food items at all? The public can do without protein if it means that companies end up fooling us by adding melamine to increase protein levels.

How practical is it to keep score on every item we consume to see if we are keeping to the maximum melamine content accepted by WHO?

It simply reveals that companies are not to be trusted & the public are advised to grow & eat their own vegetables.

Better be safe than sorry

Shenali Waduge

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