| ■ China Probing New Kidney Stone Illness in Babies | 2009.02.23 |
| Chinese parents are blaming a growing number of cases of kidney stones in babies on dairy products made by Dumex Baby Food Co., a subsidiary of France's Groupe Danone SA, the Associated Press reported. But the company says its products are safe and health officials said tests showed the products do not contain the industrial chemical melamine, which was found in tainted formula that caused kidney problems in hundreds of thousands of children and killed at least six babies last year. China's Health Ministry has launched an investigation and told all local health bureaus to start monitoring kidney problems in children and to look at their eating habits and living environment, the China Daily newspaper said Thursday, the AP reported. It's not known how many children have become sick, when they became ill, or what pushed the Health Ministry to launch an investigation into the latest outbreak. "We're trying to find out why the number of kidney ailments among babies has risen drastically," Ma Yangchen of the ministry's press office, was quoted in the China Daily, according to AP. |