Tainted Milk Execs. On Trial In China
Formula Contaminated WIth Melamine Killed At Least Six Children, Sickened 300,000; Compensation Given To Victims
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In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Geng Jinping, left front, manager of a milk production base and Geng Jinzhu, right front, a driver at the base, stand trial in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 30, 2008. The brothers are being charged for adding nearly 1,000 pounds of the industrial chemical melamine to a batch of raw milk, causing at least six deaths and 300,000 illnesses. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Ding Lixin)
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People wait to get their babies checked for kidney stones in a hospital in Fuyang in central China's Anhui province on Sept. 23, 2008. (AP PHOTO)
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Play CBS Video Video China's Milk Scandal Grows Chinese authorities have detained about two dozen suspects believed to have intentionally contaminated milk. And the number of products being pulled off shelves is growing. Barry Petersen reports.
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Video China's Tainted Milk Nightmare At least a dozen countries have banned Chinese milk products and British superstore Tesco has pulled some Chinese candy from its shelves as the melamine milk scandal spreads. Celia Hatton reports.
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Video Bad Milk Kills In China Four children have died from ingesting toxic milk powder made in China. Thousands more are in hospitals with kidney damage that could be fatal. Barry Petersen reports.
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Tian Wenhua, former board chairwoman and general manager of Sanlu Group Co., and three other top executives who also went on trial Wednesday could face the death penalty if convicted.
The high-profile trials and the release of details in a 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) compensation plan signal that authorities hope to end what was widely seen as a national disgrace, highlighting widespread food safety problems and corporate and official malfeasance.
Infant formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine has been blamed for the deaths of at least six children and sickening nearly 300,000 others.
Authorities say milk suppliers mixed the nitrogen-rich powder into raw milk in order to fool quality tests for protein. When ingested in larger amounts, melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.
It was not known how long the trials at the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court in northern China would last or when the verdicts would be announced.
Seventeen others have gone on trial over past few days with at least four facing the death penalty, Xinhua has said. The defendants included people accused of producing melamine and marketing it to milk producers, as well as milk collectors who mixed the chemical into raw milk sold to major dairies.
But the court cases offer little consolation to some parents who felt the government breached their trust after their children died or were sickened from milk powder certified by authorities as safe.
Some families have said the planned payout by dairies was too low, and their lawyers pledged to continue attempts to sue for more compensation.
"If they offered me compensation, I won't accept, because what do I need this money for since my son is gone," said Tian Xiaowei, an apple farmer and part-time truck driver, whose year-old child Tian Jin died in August from what he said was drinking melamine-tainted milk powder.
"These people are making a profit by letting people die," Tian said in a telephone interview from his home in central Shaanxi province. "If the information was made public earlier, I would not have let my son drink Sanlu powder and he wouldn't have died."
Tian could receive 200,000 yuan ($29,000) in compensation for the death of his child, according to details of the payout plan reported Tuesday by the China Daily, an official newspaper. It was not clear, however, if Tian would receive any money because authorities have yet to include his son's death in the official tally, even though tests on milk powder the boy was drinking showed high levels of melamine.
Children who suffered kidney stones would get 2,000 yuan ($290) while sicker children would be paid 30,000 yuan ($4,380), the paper said. The one-time cash payments total 900 million yuan ($131 million), while another 200 million yuan ($29 million) will go to a fund set up to cover bills for lingering health problems.
But parents who received copies of the agreement considered the offer of 2,000 yuan to be woefully inadequate, said Beijing attorney Xu Zhiyong, who is part of a legal team representing 63 families.
"I advised them not to sign it for the time being, as we would demand trials of those 22 dairy companies," said Xu, whose attempts to sue the companies involved have so far been rejected by the courts. "The compensation is too low and no victims were involved in the decision-making process."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 23 Commentsgo after British parasites like their women who pay Indians a couple 100 pounds of worthless fiat-currency to impregnate Indian females as hosts to give birth to their larvae like children.
British imperialism is culture full of parasites and maggots that know no bounds!
Truly disgusting...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-500601/Wombs-rent-Childless-British-couples-pay-Indian-women-carry-babies.html
Posted by rareben at 08:25 AM : Dec 31, 2008
Just a question for you when did Obama sign to give them the money it was the Republican hero Bush that signed the bill to do so.
Why don''t you stop with your hate message the election is over and the GOP got what they deserved. Have you read some of the post and how many people feel in this country towards the bussinesses that are in this country getting away with murder.
The only difference is that in China and many other places they pay for their crimes with their life. It doesn''t stop the crime but it sure stops repeat offenders.
If only we could prosecute the bankers, and the war mongering treasonous Bush, and his band of republicans.
Maybe we will once America wakes up to the very real desolation coming upon us.
I pray for that day.
Iraqis has been using the same plant seeds since Abraham left for the land of Ur and yet Mansanto forced the Iraqis to replace those seeds with ones that produce seedless fruits and vegetables.
This is so that Iraq will be forced to be indebted to the IMF/World Bank to buy seeds from Mansanto.
It''s evil and Mansanto needs to SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY!
EPA drops ball on danger of chemicals to children
Critics say, beholden to industry
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Posted: Mar. 30, 2008
The Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to evaluate compounds in products
such as flame retardants in mattresses and car seats to see if they are especially
harmful to children. But it doesn''t ! !
Still, EPA administrators call the program a priority and routinely cite it as proof
that the government is answering concerns about kids being exposed to potentially
dangerous household chemicals.
Some panels deciding on the safety of chemicals were disproportionately staffed
with scientists who had financial ties to chemical makers.
When pressed for more information about the chemicals they made, companies often
refused or ignored requests by the EPA.
The program has "failed in its goal of providing the public and pediatricians with timely,
useful information," said Jay Berkelhamer, then president of the American Academy
of Pediatrics,
This comes as Johnson and the EPA''s political appointees are increasingly under
fire from environmental groups and scientists - including the EPA''s own - for ignoring
science and bowing to industry.
Complete Article : Research : EPA drops ball on danger of chemicals to children
(copy and paste : Google)
Donation raises questions for head of FDA%u2019s bisphenol A panel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Report
Posted: Oct. 12, 2008
A retired medical supply manufacturer who considers bisphenol A to be
"perfectly safe" gave $5 million to the research center of Martin Philbert,
chairman of the Food and Drug Administration panel about to make a pivotal
ruling on the chemical''s safety.
Philbert did not disclose the donation, which is nearly 25 times larger than the
$210,000 annual budget of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center,
where he is founder and co-director.
Donor Charles Gelman, once labeled the second worst polluter in Michigan
by the state''s Department of Natural Resources, said Worries about health
problems that may be caused by the chemical are exaggerated by "mothers'' groups
and others
"At no time have the Gelman family or any other interested/disinterested person,
persons, corporations or other entity contacted me or attempted to influence my
scientific judgment on the matter
Norm Fost, director of the bioethics program at the University of Wisconsin,
said Philbert should have disclosed the donation.
"The public has a right to know about those connections whether they have any
effect on the outcome or not," Fost said. "It sounds like a conflict of interest."
Complete Article : Research : Donation raises questions for head of FDA%u2019s bisphenol A panel
(copy and paste Google)
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