The issue of Melamine tainted milk from China had been up for some time but I was surprised by the fact that not many medical students know it and there are even more that simply do not care or mind to find out. Here is a small article on the basic knowledge of Melamine and hopefully this would help you to more or less grasp the severity of this problem.

Melamine is an organic base which contains some 66% of nitrogen by mass. Melamine is use in producing durable thermosetting plastic and polymeric cleaning products. Some of the end products are glues, erase boards, counter tops, fabrics and flame retardants. It is also used in making high-resistance concrete and fertilizers.

Melamine derivatives of arsenical drugs are used in the treatment of African trypanosomiasis!

Due to it’s high content of nitrogen, some manufacturers added melamine into milk and infant formula to fool the government in the protein content tests. With that, the protein content of the food will appear higher than the normal value.

When melamine is consumed, it can combine with cyanuric acid (which is permitted to be present in some non-protein nitrogen additives used in drinking water) can form insoluble melamine cyanurate, which could crystallize in the renal microtubules. It would damage the renal cells and in the end cause kidney failure. Other than that, it could also lead to reproductive damage, kidney and bladder stones.

In 22 September, nearly 53,000 people had become ill and almost 12,000 people hare hospitalized, affecting mostly babies and kids who consume these milk and infant formula products.