What Causes Melamine Poisoning?

Melamine is a manmade chemical, which is colorless odorless and high in carbon and nitrogen. Melamine is used to make flame retardants, dinnerware, and in glue manufacturing. Melamine isn't approved to be used in human or animal foods. However, this dangerous chemical has been used in foods to boost the protein content of some food products. If ingested, melamine can cause kidney problems.

Oftentimes, melamine powder contains a substance called cyanuric acid. If ingested, the melamine and the cyanuric acid will circulate throughout the body. Melamine is metabolically static, meaning that it will not be metabolized by the body. The chemical just sits there in the body. In time, the two compounds will merge to form a web of white crystalline melamine cyanurate. Melamine cyanurate is what causes the symptoms of melamine poisoning. These crystals of melamine cyanurate look something like snowflakes. The congregate in the kidneys, and when the kidneys try to expel this material, it bunches up together to form kidney stones. The larger they get, the more pain is suffered because the kidneys cannot pass them easily. The edges of the stones are sharp and can cause bleeding in the ureters and the urethra, if they advance that far in the urinary tract. Melamine poisoning can cause urinary tract infections, kidney damage and kidney failure.

Symptoms of melamine poisoning

The symptoms of melamine poisoning are similar to the symptoms of a person with kidney stones. The symptoms are as follows:

Kidney pain

Kidney stones

Pain in the urinary system from kidney stones

Fever

High blood pressure

Lack of appetite

Nausea and vomiting

In China, children who are fed melamine stained formula usually have symptoms of kidney stones. Babies who ingested melamine tainted formula will often suffer greatly. They will cry frequently from the pain of kidney stones, and suffer from the symptoms listed above.

Does melamine cause cancer?

Research studies have shown that lab rats, fed a diet that includes melamine, have shown carcinogenic changes in their bodies. The lab rats were fed 225 mg/kg of their body weight every day for 103 days; the male rats developed bladder cancer. The doses of melamine used in this study were very high; the study didn't offer enough confirmation that melamine causes cancer in humans.

Conclusion

As a result of the 2008 melamine poisoning epidemic in China, the US Food and Drug Administration has published the "Guidance for Industry: Pharmaceutical Components At Risk for Melamine Contamination." This publication helps the pharmaceutical manufacturers to recognize potential melamine infected products. People in the US do not need to worry about melamine getting into their infants' formulas because none of the formulas come from China.

Sources:

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