First they poisoned our kid’s toys, then they put silver particles in our underwear and now they’ve put chemicals in baby’s milk. Could China pick anything a little less innocent to poison?
In September the state media reported that the Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. had known since last year that its milk was tainted with melamine, an industrial level chemical that can take out a kidney or two.
The company and local officials tried to cover it up as long as possible, but the media scandal broke. The Chinese government has issued free health care to the estimated 50,000 babies affected by the chemical and promised an undisclosed amount of compensation to deaths that occur. The people win, right? Not in China. At least five babies have died since the media’s coverage yet the Ministry of Health has only attributed three deaths to the milk scare. Everyone believes the total dead is higher than three and most fear that it is higher than five.
Why does it matter? Without acknowledgment from the Ministry of Health lawsuits cannot be filed, families will not be compensated and the Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. will have less pressure to resolve this issue.
When pressed on the recent death of nine-month-old Li Xiaokai, the Government responded “(we’re) working on it.”
