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Conviction in Sanlu case just a start

By Li Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-22 07:45

Accompanied by a crescendo of firecrackers, the People's Court in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, is expected to pass down "guilty" verdicts on the chief suspects in the tainted milk scandal before the end of this week.

Among them is Tian Wenhua, 66, the former chairwoman and general manager of the Sanlu Group. Tian is likely to spend the rest of her twilight years behind bars for the production and sale of milk powder heavily tainted with melamine - a banned additive supposed to thicken raw milk and increase its protein count.

Worse, she failed to stop production even after she came to know that infants had died and countless others were suffering from kidney stones after drinking her firm's milk powder.

But the convictions of Tian, members of Sanlu's top management and others involved in adding melamine to raw milk will not close to the scandal.

Parents of the nearly 300,000 babies with urinary tract problems will have lingering fears, even though they will continue to receive free medical treatment and other compensation.

While most people are planning festivities to welcome the Year of the Ox, tens of thousands of dairy farmers are still worried about their livelihood. On Sunday, the Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News printed a report with the headline "For every cup of milk people drink, dairy farmers discard one less bucket of raw milk."

In all, 22 firms have been charged with producing some 69 batches of tainted milk and milk powder. Although no fresh milk produced in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, was found tainted, some local residents were saddened to see farmers there pouring buckets of raw milk into holes in the ground.

"I don't think it is fair for dairy farmers across the country to pay for the Sanlu Group's wrongs," said one resident, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

I agree that individual dairy farmers should not be made to pay. Nor should the parents, many of whom have sacrificed their careers and their life savings. Nor certainly should babies like Zhang Ziyuan, 18 months old, of Daxing county, who must force down extra glasses of water each day in order to wash away the stones in his kidney.

Above all, as we usher in the Lunar New Year, we must make very sure that this does not happen again. Parents and children must not fear that they will be subjected to the horrors suffered by victims of the melamine contamination.

Obviously, the ramifications of the scandal reach far beyond the milk producers who have been charged. That is why other firms have vowed to prevent a recurrence, and why the industry as a whole must remain vigilant.

The scandal also exposed loopholes in the government agencies charged with preventing such a disaster. Before the scandal broke out, even the country's leading watchdog did not have proper equipment to test for melamine in food. In fact, although melamine was banned as a food additive, the regulation didn't list melamine as a contaminant to be tested for.

So far, government agencies have promised to increase financing for testing, especially at the county level. The Ministry of Agriculture, in particular, has pledged to enhance supervision of banned additives and other contaminants in animal feed.

Many of us will be glad to see this trial conclude before the Lunar New Year begins on Monday. We may not care what we eat as we welcome the Year of the Ox, but it will take time to restore full confidence in the country's food safety.

From government departments to the food and dairy industries, everyone must work harder like an Ox - not just pay lip service - to prevent a recurrence of this tragedy.

E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn