Six arrested in fresh melamine milk scandal in China
By IANSSaturday, August 21, 2010
BEIJING - Chinese police have arrested six people and detained 41 others for allegedly distributing milk contaminated with melamine, the chemical which killed six infants in a 2008 scandal, authorities said.
The latest melamine-tainted milk powder was discovered in northwest China’s Gansu province, and police traced the source to the Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Minhe County of neighbouring Qinghai province, Xinhua reported Saturday.
Three of the six arrested Friday were employees of the factory, an official said.
The Luyuan Dairy Company in Hebei province was suspected to have sold 48 tonnes of milk powder tainted with melamine, a toxic chemical, to the Dongyuan Dairy Factory, the report said.
Forty-one people have been detained after a series of cases with excessive levels of melamine in milk powder.
In the 2008 scandal, unscrupulous Chinese milk producers were found to have been mixing melamine to dairy products in a bid to falsify protein content tests. The practice caused the deaths of at least six babies and left another 300,000 ill.
