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WHO Establishes Tolerable Levels for Melamine
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by Blue Crush | December 7, 2008 at 03:47 pm
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The World Health Organization, in a meeting in Ottawa this past week, has now set up a tolerable daily intake (TDI) standard for melamine in food and drink.
The World Health Organization says an international meeting of experts in Ottawa has established what is the tolerable daily intake for the chemical that has contaminated milk products around the world.
The WHO says the meeting has set a more strict limit for melamine than what has been suggested by some national food safety authorities. It said in a statement Friday that the tolerable level has been established at 0.2 milligrams of melamine per kilogram of body weight. That means a 110-pound, or 50-kilogram, person could tolerate 10 mg of melamine per day.
The WHO stressed it has not set a "safe" level for melamine, a contaminant that should not be in food but sometimes is unavoidable.
"We expect this could better guide the authorities in protecting the health of their public," said WHO Director for Food Safety, Dr. J. Schlundt, at the closing of the WHO Expert Meeting. In other words, we are still at the mercy of our country's FDA, to set limits on food products.
Here's a statement put out by the Department of Health in Taiwan in response to the findings:
“The WHO’s suggestion [of a melamine TDI] is important for us. But to set up a TDI in Taiwan, we need to take into consideration the eating habits of Taiwanese ... and the quantity of food consumption,” DOH spokesman Wang Je-chau said.
China says the tainted milk scandal has likely caused 6 infant deaths and sickened another 300,000.
More melamine related articles here.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 16:17 on December 7th, 2008
There should be NO acceptable levels of melamine.
Period.
The head people at the FDA in the USA need to be replaced.
Change is needed and not just in the White House.
Obama, save us.
at 16:34 on December 7th, 2008
Viva Brazil!
The USA is too controlled by people with influence at the FDA.
The head people at the FDA need to go find new jobs and let young ethical people take the helm.
The lobbies control Washington.
at 16:52 on December 7th, 2008
Let have those who say it's no problem, eat up or shut up.
at 17:02 on December 7th, 2008
They probably all buy as much organic food as possible.
I say feed them the chocolate which were with the Holiday Teddy Bears from Walgreens which were recalled yesterday in the states. I wonder who has those 173 items?
It didn't even make the news in the USA.
Good idea.
Make the heads of the FDA feed the melamine to THEIR children. Along with the BPA baby bottles.
at 20:34 on December 7th, 2008
In the USA, who has been responsible or accountable for anything during the past eight years?