China now probes "mystery" kidney stones in children

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

BEIJING, Feb 19 (Reuters) - China is baffled by a "drastic" rise in the number of infants falling ill with kidney stones in the wake of a tainted milk scandal which killed six children from kidney complications and made hundreds of thousands ill.

China sentenced two people to death last month for their part in producing or selling milk adulterated with melamine, an industrial compound used to cheat nutrition tests. Nearly 300,000 children fell ill with kidney stones and other kidney-related illnesses from drinking the tainted milk last year.

But a recent rash of kidney complaints in children with apparently no link to drinking milk tainted with melamine had puzzled Chinese health experts and prompted a new investigation, the China Daily said on Thursday, citing the Health Ministry.

"We're trying to find out why the number of kidney ailments among babies has risen drastically ... it could be related to feeding habits or families' living environment," the paper quoted Ma Yangchen, a Health Ministry spokesman, as saying.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK108308

[get the red out]

1. Their living environment is pollution that blots out the sun

I traveled to China in January and the cities I visited looked like a Republican environmental dream, or something dreamed up on the Sci Fi channel. Enormous cities blanketed in a thick haze of pollution, an acrid smell that I picked up as the plane touched the ground and didn't loose until I left the country two weeks later. This isn't a reflection on the people, just what has been allowed to be done to their country and their health in the pursuit of money.

[Blue_Tires]

3. yeah, i think we are only seeing the beginning of chronic health issues

due to shady environmental records from the industries

[radfringe]

2. what other foods are tainted with melamine? n/t