Beijing must surely be heaving a giant sigh of relief that China’s contaminated milk scandal surfaced only after the Olympic Games had been successfully concluded. If the smelly stuff hit the fan before that, the repercussions to say the least would have been massive. Nevertheless they are bad enough, a tragedy of massive proportions that has reached the nooks and crannies of the global village now inhabited by mankind. Like our own Sakvithi scandal, the milk contamination was an act of human greed with the poisonous chemical added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content than it actually did. Corruption also played its part with the problem not only restricted to the giant Sanlu Group, part owned by New Zealand’s Fonterra Dairy Cooperative, but also affecting to a lesser degree products from as many as 21 other companies, the latest reports said.

Given that China is today one of the world’s biggest exporters of any and everything and that as milk goes into an unimaginable range of food products, not just butter, cheese, ice cream, yoghurt and suchlike as is commonly perceived, the ramifications of what has happened are huge. It has caused the recall of chocolates manufactured by world famous Cadbury and all manner of other confectionery including cookies and snacks of a variety of description. Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia, reported that nearly 53,000 cases of illness have been reported leading to 12,000 hospitalizations up to the third week of September. Four infant deaths have been recorded from kidney stones and other renal failure. It has been found that the same chemical had triggered a series of pet food recalls last year. Babies and infants, naturally, have been most vulnerable because many of them are totally dependant on formula. An adult eating a product where contaminated milk may have been an ingredient is unlikely to risk serious illness as they don’t snack the way babies drink milk. All of us, surely, ingest all manner of poisons including pesticide residues with fruit and vegetables we eat without thorough washing, not to speak of growth hormones and other chemicals used in the livestock industry.

Commendably, the Chinese government did not engage in any cover-up. It admitted a regulatory failure, apologized to its own people and others who had been affected and deployed an army of inspectors to all dairy producing enterprises to make spot inspections and conduct strict and effective oversight. All suspect goods have been recalled including products of two companies that have been exported to various countries including Bangladesh, Yemen, Burma, Gabon and Burundi. Fonterra is on record saying it had raised concerns about the tainted milk some weeks earlier but Sanlu, the Chinese company at the heart of the scandal, had been slow to respond. New Zealand’s prime minister has been quoted saying that the government investigation had begun only after she raised the matter through official channels. Be that as it may, the wheels have begun rolling and preventive measures are being rapidly enforced.

We in Sri Lanka are not unfamiliar with watered milk. The problem is much less severe now, or virtually non-existent, than what it used to be in the days that milkmen on bicycles made deliveries of unsealed bottles of milk to homes in Colombo and other urban centers. In the early and middle part of the last century, there were kiri pattis or dairy herds in some of today’s poshest residential areas of Colombo and the milkmen, with strong khaki bottle bags slung across their bicycle bars to supplement what was transported in a wooden box on their luggage carriers, used to be a common sight on city roads early in the morning. Those were days before pasteurization, sterilization and a milk processing industry were virtually unknown. Some of the less reputable dairies used to adulterate milk with water and sometimes the milkmen did that too in some hideout while on their delivery rounds. But nothing other than water was added. Alert housewives were quick to detect adulteration and they knew how to deal with errant dairy owners or milkmen.

Older readers would be familiar with Melaware that was a rage in the fifties and sixties. This plastic tableware made with Melamine Formaldehyde, was reputed to be indestructible and was once considered a rival to traditional porcelain. Bright colours, modern shapes and various other attributes captured the popular imagination in those days but cups, especially those with white insides, would stain with tea and coffee. Though porcelain was not dethroned, Melaware and other brands are still favoured for picnics and outings where unbreakable, portable crockery is desired. Obviously such tableware is not poisonous in the fashion that one of its primary chemical components has proved to be. But given today’s communication revolution and the fact that melamine is now part of most people’s lexicons, there is the danger of unscrupulous fast buck makers looking into the ``possibilities.’’ That’s something the government as well as milk collectors from the big firms who mainly check on fat and milk solid content should guard against. The Health and Trade Ministry have assured that no contaminated milk is sold here, obviously on the basis of the sources of imports. Yet it would be useful for the authorities to ensure that preventive testing capability, if not already available, is quickly in place.