melamine

WE may have a melamine problem too! – In the November 17 edition of the New York Times, James E. McWilliams reports that “?Melamine is?integral to the material life of any industrialized society. It’s a common ingredient in cleaning products, waterproof plywood, plastic compounds, cement, ink and fire-retardant paint. Chemical plants throughout the United States produce millions of pounds of melamine a year. Given the pervasiveness of melamine, it’s always possible that trace elements will end up in food.”
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UPDATE – We recently reported on how the pet food poison melamine, a substance which is used in China, may have gotten into pet food in the US. In the New York Times, Ariana Lindquist writes that workers at a major chemical company in China say that they regularly add melamine to animal feed as a kind of “extender,” since it’s inexpensive scrap that appears to be protein, but actually has no nutritional value.
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