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Fourth milk death reported in China

A doctor checks a child yesterday for kidney stones in a hospital in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province. Chinese police arrested 12 more people as a fourth death was reported in a scandal involving toxic milk powder that has sickened more than 6,200 babies. PHOTO: AP

China yesterday reported a fourth death in a mounting scandal over toxic baby milk as it ratcheted up its response to the crisis with tighter inspections and the sacking of a city mayor.

The latest death came in the remote northwestern region of Xinjiang, where 86 people fell ill after consuming the milk product that contained the industrial chemical melamine, a notice on the local government’s Web site said.

It gave few details on the latest fatality, such as whether it was a baby.

The Xinjiang fatality adds to three deaths confirmed on Wednesday by Health Minister Chen Zhu (陳竺), who also said more than 6,000 babies nationwide had fallen ill.

The three deaths were caused by kidney failure after drinking the milk powder containing melamine, and the scandal has caused panicked parents around the country to besiege hospitals seeking medical check-ups for their children. Melamine, a chemical normally used in plastics, was illegally mixed into milk products and made its way into the baby formula of 22 Chinese dairy firms, authorities said this week, months after babies first started falling ill.

The chemical was apparently introduced to give watered-down milk the appearance of having high protein levels.

The report of the latest death came as China announced stringent new measures aimed at containing the widening scandal.

The government said it would close loopholes that had allowed many companies to avoid scrutiny on safety, and step up testing of livestock feed to root out the use of melamine throughout the agricultural sector.

The new measures came a day after the country’s top leadership slammed supervision systems in an admission of official failures.

“[The scandal] has shown us that the dairy market is chaotic, flaws exist in supervision mechanisms, and supervision work is weak,” state media said on Wednesday night in summarizing the conclusions of a Cabinet meeting.

The government had earlier on Wednesday ordered nationwide checks for melamine on all dairy products.

As part of the stepped up supervision announced yesterday, the country’s top product-quality agency canceled an eight-year-old system under which food producers could gain exemption from safety inspections if they had a good quality record.
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