Ministry clears milk of causing early puberty
2010-08-16 06:53BEIJING - The Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that it had found no evidence of contamination in milk powder made by a Chinese company after an investigation into reports that it had caused baby girls to show signs of premature sexual development.
At a press conference in Beijing, ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said the investigation found that the contents of sex hormones in Synutra milk powder and samples of 20 other brands did not exceed the qualified amounts of either national or international standards.
The Synutra milk formula was reported earlier this month to have caused at least three infant girls in Hubei to develop prematurely.
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[/table]Similar cases were reported in Guangdong, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangxi provinces and Beijing.
Deng said that 42 samples of milk powder made by Synutra were tested together with 31 samples from 20 other brands, which were collected from the home of one of the girls affected, the markets of Wuhan in central China's Hubei province and in Beijing.
Professor Wu Xueyan, an expert in endocrine research at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said the three infant girls undergoing premature development should be diagnosed as "minimal puberty", which is usually seen among infant boys up to six months and in girls up to two years old.
"Minimal puberty" as a natural result of hormone secretion would make infants develop prematurely, Wu explained.
Infant girls under the age of two who are sensitive to hormone secretion could grow breasts, Wu said.
According to Wu, the experts studied the medical histories, clinical symptoms and chemical test reports on the three girls.
"The three infants did not show premature development of bones or height, and the growth of their breasts was within the normal ranges of minimal puberty," Wu said.
When asked to comment on the increasing number of cases involving premature development over the past decade, Wu attributed it to greater awareness of the problem and a rise in hospital visits.
"I believe more parents will pay attention to the problem after this incident, which might trigger a rise in hospital visits and more such diagnoses," said Wu.
Shao Bing, a researcher at the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said experts from different medical institutes jointly tested more than 70 samples of milk powder products.
"The samples were delivered by the Ministry of Health, each was given a number, but with no trademark," Shao said. "The method of testing was widely applied during the Beijing Olympic Games and proved to be effective and safe."
Testing for the hormone content of dairy products was not a standard part of quality inspection procedures, but routine testing was feasible, though expensive, said Shao.
Plans for regulations and standard procedures to test milk formula will be formulated in the near future, Deng said.
Synutra's official website on Sunday carried a public letter written by company president Zhang Liang on Aug 12, expressing regret for the panic and the public concern over the company's products. [b]China Clears Infant Formula in Early Puberty Scare[/b]
by Michelle Greenhalgh | Aug 18, 2010
In response to another public relations crisis surrounding Chinese dairy products, Chinese health officials released a report claiming that locally made milk formula was not to blame for early puberty in baby girls.
The Chinese Ministry of Health's report stated that no link was found between the use of infant formula and reports by families claiming that after using the product their infant daughters had grown breasts.
Seventy-three samples of the baby formula, made by Qingdo-based Synutra International, were tested by the ministry. Officials concluded that the milk powder contained normal levels of the specific hormones thought to have caused the early development.
According to the Health Times, a Beijing-based newspaper, three families in the central province of Hubei claimed that their daughters grew breasts after being fed formula made by Synutra in July. The newspaper reported that the infants had levels of the hormones estradiol and prolactin, some were as high as those found in adult women. The aforementioned hormones stimulate the production of breast milk.
In light of previous scandals, Chinese authorities are eager to quell fears of concerned parents over dangerous Chinese baby products. The country has had numerous tainted dairy product crises, including the highly publicized 2008 and 2010 melamine-tainted baby formula scandals. The 2008 crisis sickened thousands of children and killed at least six.
The ministry's investigation, conducted by nine practicing experts in the areas of food safety, endocrinology and pediatrics, concluded that the three Hubei cases resulted because of "minimal puberty," a condition where early onset of puberty happens in girls before the age of 2 and boys of up to 6 months old.
"Breast development in female infants is not rare clinically," Liang Li, an endocrinologist at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, told the Global Times, an English-language newspaper sponsored by the Chinese government, after the government issued its statement Sunday.
"Breast development in the three baby girls in Hubei has no link to Synutra milk powder," said Chinese Health Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua. The spokesman cited the fact that the Hubei infants did not show abnormal bone growth or other symptoms such as abnormal hormone levels to indicate early puberty.
World Health Organization food safety expert Ben Embarek, indicated that health officials need to investigate whether even low levels of hormones in baby formula could affect infants who largely rely on the formula as their main food source. Embarek also said that the results of the Hubei baby analysis may have been affected by the fact that the children's parents stopped using the formula days or weeks before the tests.
According to other reports of the incident, parents have flooded doctors' offices to have their children checked as they are skeptical of health officials' findings.
Wang Gang, parent of a 1-year-old infant, took his daughter to the Beijing Children's Hospital after noticing a strange liquid on her underwear. Wang said the doctor evaluating his daughter was so surprised at the level of hormones present that he asked if it was possible the child had accidentally swallowed birth control pills.
"I've heard the statement from the ministry, and it makes me feel helpless," Wang told a newspaper. In addition, he said other parents are dissatisfied with the answers coming from doctors and the Health Ministry. He's started an online group on QQ, a popular Chinese instant messaging forum, where he and more than 100 other families debate how they can independently test the samples of infant formula and whether they should start raising sheep to ensure their own safe supply of milk for their children.
"There's no way I'm using milk formula, whether it's from China or abroad," Wang said.
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