When will we need geiger counters to go shopping?

Traces of radiation found in Japanese baby formula 

 A Japanese baby food manufacturer has announced the recall of 400,000 cans of infant formula that reportedly contain traces of radioactive cesium connected to the nation's recent nuclear plant meltdown. 

After panicked parents deluged Tokyo-based Meiji Co. with calls and e-mails, officials of the Tokyo-based food and candy maker responded Wednesday that they do not know how much of the tainted formula had reached consumers, but said the milk was manufactured in March and April and shipped not long afterward. 

The incident marked the second time this week that skittish Japanese citizens learned of more radioactive after-effects from the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The facility was struck March 11 by an earthquake-triggered tsunami that knocked out its cooling system and led to several reactor core meltdowns that spewed radiation into the air, water and soil. 

On Sunday, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, announced that 45 tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from a filtration system at the atomic plant, with some of the water possibly reaching the nearby Pacific Ocean. 

Critics say the leak counteracts assurances that Tepco has largely controlled the environmental damage at the coastal plant, located 220 miles northeast of Tokyo. The radiation in the water from Sunday's leak measured up to 322 times higher than government safety limits for various types of cesium. 

On Wednesday, plant officials acknowledged that nearly 40 gallons of water from the weekend leak had reached the Pacific Ocean. The water, which was used to cool the reactors, contained not only cesium, but strontium, another dangerous isotope, the utility said.

Update: The Japanese are trying to tell themselves their land contaminated by radiation will be salvageable.

Those who fled Futaba are among the nearly 90,000 people evacuated from a 12-mile zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and another area to the northwest contaminated when a plume from the plant scattered radioactive cesium and iodine. Now, Japan is drawing up plans for a cleanup that is both monumental and unprecedented, in the hopes that those displaced can go home. The debate over whether to repopulate the area, if trial cleanups prove effective, has become a proxy for a larger battle over the future of Japan. Supporters see rehabilitating the area as a chance to showcase the country’s formidable determination and superior technical skills — proof that Japan is still a great power. For them, the cleanup is a perfect metaphor for Japan’s rebirth. Critics counter that the effort to clean Fukushima Prefecture could end up as perhaps the biggest of Japan’s white-elephant public works projects — and yet another example of post-disaster Japan reverting to the wasteful ways that have crippled economic growth for two decades. So far, the government is following a pattern set since the nuclear accident, dismissing dangers, often prematurely, and laboring to minimize the scope of the catastrophe. Already, the trial cleanups have stalled: the government failed to anticipate communities’ reluctance to store tons of soil to be scraped from contaminated yards and fields. And a radiation specialist who tested the results of an extensive local cleanup in a nearby city found that exposure levels remained above international safety standards for long-term habitation. Even a vocal supporter of repatriation suggests that the government has not yet leveled with its people about the seriousness of their predicament. “I believe it is possible to save Fukushima,” said the supporter, Tatsuhiko Kodama, director of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo. “But many evacuated residents must accept that it won’t happen in their lifetimes.”

Map of contaminated area in Japan.

That certain piquant flavor...

Is in everything:

Melamine-contaminated pet food killed thousands of dogs and cats in the United States two years ago. Melamine-contaminated infant formula recently killed six babies in China, and made hundreds of thousands of children there ill.

Now melamine has been found in some chocolate, cookies and infant formula in the U.S.!

Yet our own Food and Drug Administration says it’s OK to have a certain amount of the chemical in infant formula, even though the agency previously said it couldn’t determine a safe level for melamine. What are we supposed to believe?

Tell Congress you’re fed up with the FDA’s lax regulation of our food and drug supply. Strong leadership, more safety testing, better inspection of imports, and tough enforcement are needed to make sure no American families suffer the tragic consequences of eating contaminated food.

Now that we have an administration that hears us, sign the petition.

Here we go again

And this time it isn't because of China:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - U.S. Health officials have found traces of the toxic chemical melamine in one sample of infant formula and in several samples of medical supplements for the elderly, but say they pose no health threat.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists performed a second test on the formula sample that tested positive. The first test found a melamine level of 137 parts per billion (ppb) and the other found levels of 140 ppb.

While a level of 250 ppb or less is considered a trace amount, when it comes to infant formula, or food for babies, there is controversy. Some experts say no amount of melamine is considered safe for infants, while others say those levels are safe.

Since September, the FDA has expanded testing of food to assure Americans that the food supply was safe. They also found trace amounts of melamine in several medical supplements for the elderly, but say there is no health threat.

Melamine is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic, but it has been wrongfully used in China as an additive to milk, and other food products, to boost protein levels. Many babies in China were sickened, and some died, when the toxic melamine caused kidney stones and other problems.

Melamine is a toxic chemical that can damage kidneys, and cause other health problems, including death.

FDA officials have not identified the manufacturer of the infant formula, but have said that the infant formula was not made with any Chinese ingredients.

However, melamine has been found in animal feed, and also in some fertilizers, when applied to crops, it can stay in the soil and build up.

The Washington Post:

"The levels that we are detecting are extremely low," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "They should not be changing the diet. If they've been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That's in the best interest of the baby."

Melamine is the chemical found in Chinese infant formula _ in far larger concentrations _ that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.

Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer.

Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

The three firms _ Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson _ manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.

The FDA and other experts said the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally.

Instead of pets, now they are killing babies.

Greed does not have a learning curve, apparently:

BEIJING -- China’s Ministry of Health on Monday announced that two babies have died in recent months and 1,253 others have been sickened by contaminated milk powder in a rapidly expanding food safety scandal that became public last week.

More than 340 infants remain hospitalized, including 53 in serious condition.

Meanwhile, inspection teams are visiting dairy farms and processing centers in the country’s four main milk-producing provinces to insure that producers are not violating safety standards.

Authorities have confirmed that the tainted milk powder was laced with melamine, a chemical additive sometimes used to make plastics and fertilizer. Last year, a contaminated pet food scare in the United States was traced to Chinese animal feed that had been blended with melamine.

This is not the first time they have poisoned children with milk.

Tell me again why on earth we are buying ANYTHING from China? Lead, date rape drugs, melamine, you name it, it's been jammed into our food and other products we buy from China.

We want it cheap, but it will be toxic. Take your pick from these products:

Keeping track of the other incidences:

poisonous baby clothing,
toys,
cub scout patches,
food poisoning of school children,
hydrogen explosions in school,
toxic seafood and pork....

Update: How could I forget about the poisoning pet food with melamine?
And toothpaste?
And cough syrup?

Adding to this list:

Asbestos
Fake Kosher
Insecticide
Formaldehyde in baby clothes

I told you guys their attempts to self-regulate would last only two minutes.