Timeline of China's tainted milk powder scandal - Re: China's food safety watchdog boss steps down

Timeline of China's tainted milk powder scandal
By The Associated Press
Mon Sep 22, 4:47 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080922/ap_on_re_as/as_china_baby_formula_recall_chronology_1

A chronology of events in the tainted baby formula scandal that has
been blamed for the deaths of four infants and for sickening nearly
53,000 others in China:

• December 2007: Sanlu Group Co. receives complaints from consumers
that its infant formula was sickening babies, according to state
broadcaster China Central Television, citing findings from a State
Council investigation.

• June 2008: Sanlu learns its milk powder is contaminated with
melamine, CCTV says.

• June 30: China's product quality watchdog receives a complaint that
five infants at the Hunan province children's hospital have kidney
stones and were all fed Sanlu brand milk powder, according to data on
the Web site of China's food safety watchdog that has since been
removed.

• July 24: A pediatrician tells the watchdog he has seen nine cases of
kidney stones in infants, all of whom drank Sanlu formula. The
unidentified doctor expresses concern over the milk powder, according
to data on the watchdog Web site that has since been removed.

• Aug. 2: Sanlu alerts the government of Shijiazhuang, the northern
Chinese city where the company is based, that its infant formula is
tainted, according to CCTV. At a Sanlu board meeting, New Zealand
dairy farmers' group Fonterra, a major investor in the company, learns
about complaints of sick babies and urges an immediate recall.

• Aug. 6: Sanlu pulls baby milk powder from distributors, but does not
do a public recall.

• Aug. 8: The Beijing Olympics open and run until Aug. 24.

• Sept. 5: Fonterra informs New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark
about the issue. Three days later, Clark orders New Zealand officials
to inform officials in Beijing.

• Sept. 9: Shijiazhuang city officials inform Hebei provincial
officials. A day later, Hebei provincial officials contact the central
government.

• Sept. 11: Sanlu publicly recalls 700 tons of baby formula.
Government vows "serious punishment" for those responsible. Xinhua
reports dozens of babies have kidney stones and one baby has died.

• Sept. 13: Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang says 432 babies fed Sanlu
formula have developed kidney stones. Gao blames Sanlu for delays in
warning the public and launches an inspection of all Chinese formula
companies. Hebei's vice governor says authorities have seized 2,176
tons of Sanlu formula and recalled 8,218 tons.

• Sept. 15: Number of sickened children rises to more than 1,200, with
two deaths. China's quality watchdog says contamination occurred
mainly at farms, which sell raw milk to dairy companies. Sanlu's vice
president apologizes, but does not explain the delay in informing the
public.

• Sept. 16: A nationwide inspection of 109 Chinese baby milk powder
companies uncovers 22 with traces of melamine. Sanlu General Manager
Tian Wenhua is fired and dismissed from board of directors, state
media reports.

• Sept. 17: China's two largest dairies, Mengniu Dairy Co. and Yili
Industrial Group Co., recall baby formula. Health minister says three
babies have died and more than 6,200 others have been sickened. China
deploys 5,000 inspectors to companies producing baby milk.

• Sept. 18: Authorities arrest 12 more people, bringing total detained
to 18. Police confiscate 660 pounds of suspected chemicals.

• Sept. 19: Crisis widens after government tests find melamine in
liquid milk produced by three of China's leading dairies.

• Sept. 21: Health ministry reports the number of sickened children
soars to nearly 53,000, with 12,892 hospitalized and 104 in serious
condition. The Chinese territory of Hong Kong reports the first known
illness outside mainland China, a 3-year-old girl who developed kidney
stones after drinking Chinese dairy products.

• Sept. 22: The head of China's product quality watchdog agency
resigns.



On Sep 22, 4:46 am, rst0wxyz <rst0w...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
China's food safety watchdog boss steps downhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR200...
By ANITA CHANG
The Associated Press
Monday, September 22, 2008; 7:23 AM

BEIJING -- The head of China's product quality watchdog resigned
Monday in the wake of the tainted baby formula scandal that has
sickened nearly 53,000 infants, highlighting a breakdown in the
country's food safety system only a year after a major overhaul.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Li Changjiang stepped down with
the approval of China's Cabinet.

Li's agency is responsible for ensuring that China's food supply chain
is safe. His resignation comes after the industrial chemical melamine
was blamed for causing kidney stones and kidney failure in babies.

The chemical was found in infant formula and other milk products from
22 of China's dairy companies.

Xinhua said Wang Yong had replaced Li as the director of the General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Although Xinhua said only that Li had resigned after infants had
become sick after taking tainted milk products, the widespread nature
of the crisis reflects a systemic breakdown in supervision of the
dairy industry.

It was only a year ago that China's product safety system was
overhauled with new regulations and procedures to try to restore
consumer confidence and preserve export markets after a string of
recalls and warnings abroad over tainted toothpaste, faulty tires and
other goods.

In an indication of Beijing's determination to improve product safety,
the government executed the disgraced chief of China's food and drug
agency, who was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for letting
fake medicine into the domestic market.

The latest crisis indicated that problems were still slipping through
the cracks, however. The crisis comes just one month after the Beijing
Olympics, which the government wanted to use, in part, to prove to the
world that China was capable of setting a new standard for food
safety.

The discovery of the tainted milk is especially damaging because Sanlu
Group Co., the company at the heart of the scandal, is China's biggest
producer of powdered milk and such large companies are expected to act
as industry role models for safety and quality.

Infant formula and other milk products have been pulled from stores
around the country and Chinese imports from liquid milk to instant
coffee mix to milk-based candy have been banned around Asia.

On Monday the World Health Organization demanded stricter monitoring
of the industry.

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