All (if not Many) of you should have heard about the Melamine Adulteration in milk powders made from china for the past 2 weeks. More common words you heard would perhaps be “Sanlu Milk causing deaths of babies“.
Since this is a chemistry blog-site that also discussed about Chemistry Phenomenons (besides sharing of Chemistry Tips & Strategies), we shall discuss a little bit of this Melamine Scare – a case of Chemistry put into Wrong Use.
Melamine is an organic compound with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with the IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine, and is only slightly soluble in water. It is commonly used as a fire restardant in commercial products and china is the major supplier of melamine globally.
Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer. In this recent case in China which gone public in september 2008, Sanlu recalled all powdered milk in China where melamine was reported to have been used in 22 brands of infant formula, making more than 50,000 infants ill and hospitalizing almost 12,900. Several have already died at the time of post. Melamine has also been found in products produced by a dozen more companies, including Mengniu, Yili, and Yashili, all now being internationally distributed (yes, we have all these in Singapore).
Melamine have been added to fool government quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk’s volume. The adulterant melamine was added to the milk to allow dilution of the milk with water and circumvent government regulations, since melamine will cause a false increase in the measurement of protein by increasing the Nitrogen levels in the milk (Milk must have high content of protein – which is shown by high content of Nitrogen).
Hope you learn something about this global concern where Chemistry is put into wrong use.
But before we end this post, i just have a chemistry-related question to ask you.
I have mentioned that these chinese milk-manufacturing companies had added Melamine to milk to increase the NITROGEN CONTENT.
Now, based on information in earlier part of this blog-post, can you:
Question: Calculate the % Mass of N in Melamine??
This will allow you to see why these unscrupulous business owners are using melamine to increase their profits.
PS: Leave your comments and/or answers in the “LEAVE ME A REPLY” section below. I would love to hear from you.