Parents seek results of baby breasts probe
- Source: Global Times
- [02:26 August 11 2010]
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By Guo Qiang
The food safety watchdog in central Hubei Province was urged Tuesday to release the results of an investigation over premature breast development attributed to infant formula by a NASDAQ-listed maker of milk products.
Ministry of Health spokesman Deng Haihua said Tuesday that Hubei food safety authorities tested samples of milk powder produced by Qingdao-based Syrutra International.
Medical experts have been organized by local authorities to carry out clinical tests on baby girls who have shown signs of premature breast development after consuming the milk products, he said.
The reasons behind the children's sexual precocity were complicated, Deng said, noting that entering into precocious puberty could stem from a wide range of factors, an assessment that was echoed by some doctors and experts.
Public outcry surfaced after reports said three infants, aged between 4 and 15 months, in Hubei Province, were found to be showing symptoms of precocious puberty, demonstrated by breast development and abnormal levels of female hormones.
However, Synutra insists that its products are safe. In a statement issued after the press conference, the company said it "welcomes the ministry's scientific and objective response to the matter," adding that it is looking forward to the test results.
It said it was planning to sue Phoenix TV and its news website for "fabricating lies that the milk powder had led to premature puberty, discrediting the company, and interfering with its normal businesses," according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Shares of Synutra, a leading maker of infant formula in China, have tumbled 27 percent in Nasdaq trading.
Wang Yi, former deputy director of Shandong Provincial Hospital, said that cases of premature breast development and precocious puberty in infants are rare, and she has seen few during her 41 years in pediatrics.
"I have handled only cases of abnormal sexual development among children at 6 or 7 years old who used to take royal jelly for extra nutrition," she said.
"But if those infants were fed only with the suspected milk powder, official investigations should focus on the formula," she said, adding that "those children will recover and won't be affected in the future if they stop taking food containing hormones."
However, some experts and doctors agreed that a hasty conclusion is unadvisable on whether Syrutra's products are the "culprit" that led to the abnormal development in the baby girls.
Song Kungang, director-general of the China Dairy Industry Association, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that "We can't draw a hasty conclusion that the milk powder is blamed for causing premature development and sexual precocity given that our daily food could also contribute to the premature sexual development."
Yao Hui, with the endocrinology department at Wuhan Children's Hospital, told Xinhua that "sexual precocity" is not an accurate term to define those infant girls.
"Those baby girls have shown signs of premature breast development. But they didn't show signs of bone development and accelerated growth," he said. "A variety of reasons could lead to pre-mature breast development."
Still recovering from a tainted milk scandal in 2008, in which melamine-contaminated baby formula sickened thousands of children and killed at least six, China's domestic dairy industry is still struggling to win back local confidence.
Deng Xiaoyun, the mother of a 1-year-old girl who was diagnosed at the Wuhan Children's Hospital as having developed hormone-triggered sexual precocity, told the Global Times that she would not trust the results of the examinations carried out by local authorities in their handling of the matter.
"One container of milk powder had been taken away by the Wuhan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for days. But no one has contacted me recently."
An official with the Hubei Food and Drug Administration, who would give only his surname as Xu, told the Global Times that "testing is in progress," without giving a specific time when the test results could be announced.
Chen Rui and Zhao Zhijie contributed to this story
