China said Wednesday more than 6,000 babies had fallen ill and three died after drinking milk powder laced with a toxic chemical, as it vowed massive efforts to contain a widening food scandal.
In the latest debacle to tarnish the "Made in China" label, authorities admitted two of 22 companies found to have melamine in their milk powder were exporting abroad, and that tainted yoghurt had been found in Hong Kong.
Melamine, a chemical normally used to make plastics and glues, appeared to have been added to make the products seem richer in protein, and China's two biggest dairy companies were among those found to have contaminated products.
"Everyone in our family is very worried," said Qi Yunzhong, a teacher at a primary school in northwest China's Gansu province whose son is suffering from kidney stones, a symptom of drinking the tainted milk powder.
"Every day there is a long line out in front of the hospital. The families are worried and everyone has stopped using milk powder," he told AFP by phone.
Meanwhile, police in China have detained the sacked chairwoman of Sanlu Group, the company at the centre of the mounting national scandal over deadly baby formula, state media reported.
A top local official in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, has also been sacked over the food safety crisis, according to Hebei.com, an official news website in Hebei province.
Tian Wenhua, who was fired by Sanlu on Tuesday, was detained under laws governing the production and sale of harmful food products, said the site.
The report did not say whether Tian, who was also the company's general manager, had been formally arrested.
The sacked official was Shijiazhuang's Communist Party vice secretary Ji Chuntang.
In Beijing, Health Minister Chen Zhu said 6,244 infants across the country had fallen ill and three died after consuming the milk powder over a period of many months.
The number of children who had fallen ill was nearly five times more than the government had indicated on Tuesday.
While many had now recovered, 1,327 remained in hospital, of whom 158 were suffering or recovering from acute kidney failure, Chen said as he gave the government's first detailed account of the scandal.
Speaking at the same briefing, Li Changjiang, head of the nation's product quality watchdog, said every dairy producer around the country would be subject to to ensure all their products were safe, and not just milk powder.
"We will finish the melamine-focused testing on dairy products at all dairy producers as soon as possible and release the results in a timely manner," Li said.
Meanwhile, authorities nervously waited to see if the tainted products turned up overseas after two of the companies identified as producing it had to Bangladesh, Burundi, Gabon, Myanmar and Yemen.
Li, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, did not give any indication if the exports had been contaminated but said the companies involved were recalling their products.
He also confirmed melamine was found in a yogurt ice-bar made by Yili, one of China's two biggest dairy producers, which was sold in the southern territory of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong supermarket chain Wellcome has recalled the Yili Natural Choice Yogurt Ice-bar, and Li said authorities would investigate how melamine got into the product.
The scandal is the latest to rock China's food industry, which has already been tarnished in recent years by a series of health scares over dangerous products, some of which have been exported.
Melamine was also found in Chinese pet food exported to the United States last year that killed dogs and cats.
Chinese fish contaminated with banned drugs, cough syrup made with poisonous chemicals and dumplings laced with pesticide have also been found on sale in other countries.
Amid last year's scandals that also extended to products such as toys with lead-based paint on them, Chinese authorities vowed to improve the safety procedures for its food and manufacturing industries.
Nevertheless, amid the tainted milk scandal, questions were again being raised over whether authorities had tried initially to cover up the crisis rather than attempt to solve it.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said this week her country "blew the whistle" on the continued sale of the milk powder after Chinese authorities refused to act.
The first of the babies who died, a five-month-old boy, passed away on May 1, more than four months before the scandal became public.
Source: AFP Global Edition
