Posted on 08/10/2010 1:11:05 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
BEIJING: China's health ministry said on Tuesday it had ordered food safety authorities in central Hubei province to investigate claims that milk powder has caused infant girls to grow breasts.
Officials had already begun tests on the baby formula after parents and doctors expressed fears that hormones in the milk powder made by NASDAQ-listed Synutra had caused babies to develop breasts prematurely.
"The Ministry of Health had attached great importance to this issue," spokesman Deng Haihua told a news conference, according to a transcript.
Local food safety authorities had earlier refused a parent's request to investigate the formula made by Synutra, based in the eastern city of Qingdao, saying they did not conduct tests at consumers' behest, state media reported.
Medical tests indicated the levels of hormones in three girls, ranging in age from four- to 15-months and who were fed the same baby formula, exceeded those of the average adult woman, China Daily reported on Monday.
A fourth case was reported in Beijing, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
The ministry said medical experts were also assisting a separate medical investigation into the cause of the infants' condition.
Synutra insisted in a statement that its products were safe and that no man-made hormones or illegal substances had been added during production.
The company's shares plunged 27 per cent on Monday in New York to 12.72 dollars, their steepest fall since China's 2008 tainted milk scandal.
Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide in 2008 after it was found that melamine, which is used to make plastics, was widely and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of higher protein.
Melamine was found in the products of 22 Chinese dairy companies in a massive scandal blamed for the deaths of at least six infants and for sickening 300,000 others in China.
Wow, steroids in milk might explain a whole lot of wierd things happening to our kids as they grow up.
I wouldn’t know. I’m a lactard like Mark Levin and can’t drink milk without feeling sick.
I was in the grocery store the other day trying to find a non-dairy creamer that was labeled “Made in the USA.” There wasn’t one. The Chinese are known for adding stuff illegally to food and finding any way to cheat the system they can. I do not want to buy creamer — or ANY food product — that comes from China! They just can’t be trusted.
Why can’t we have product-origin labeling where the container says EXACTLY where the ingredients come from?
Look for a huge order of this product to be delivered to the White House for Michelle.
I just heard that Scott Ritter has jumped on a plane headed for China.
The thing about growing breasts when I’m a 6 month-old Chinese baby is that an hour later, I feel like growing breasts all over again.
They should sell this to women and milk this for all it’s worth.
This sort of thing has been going on for quite a while. I’ve suffered with gynecomastia (male breasts) since I was a pre-teen, and every doctor I’ve seen about it has told me that it’s likely that the hormones in foods I ate a baby caused my body to produce mammary fat.
As a man, it’s difficult to hide them under a shirt and can be mortally embarrassing to go shirtless at the beach or water park.
They talk about these infant girls sprouting breasts, how about the boys? Are they afflicted by the same problem or will they be at some point in their lives? I would not wish this on anyone.
I’m sure there’s some joke about sweet and sour sauce in there, but I don’t think I quite dare make it...
It may be soy.
The first thing we did when we brought our daughter home from China was take her off that Chinese crap they were feeding her.
evidently there were NO hormones in anything I ate growing up! :-(
This is probably all fake. Everyone in China is sensitive over milk powder, and a close reading of the story indicates that it is only investigating the claims. Rumors and fear-mongering are everywhere in CHina.
It’s probably a buying-opportunity for this company
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