China Says Milk Powder Did not Cause Baby Sexual Precocity, Concerns Remain

The Ministry of Health said it had found no evidence of contamination in Synutra Milk powder after an investigation into reports that it had caused baby girls to show signs of premature sexual development.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Health Deng Haihua told a news conference
Sunday that the ministry had found no evidence of contamination in Synutra Milk
powder after an investigation into reports that it had caused baby girls to show
signs of premature sexual development.

An early report, entitled Who Should We Blame for Baby Girls' Sexual
Precocity, in the Healthy Times said three baby girls in Wuhan, a Chinese city
in Wuhan Province were found sexual precocity, and their breast began to grow.
Similar cases were reported in Jiangxi and Shandong provinces afterwards.

It is reported that a safety control and regulation team in Hubei Province
was instructed by the Ministry of Health to conduct investigations into the milk
powder after the report came out and the latter, two days later, got directly
involved in the probe. 42 samples of Synutra milk powders were taken to the
Beijing Center for Diseases Control and Prevention and the Chinese Academy of
Inspection and Quarantine for detection.

At the same time, further clinical examination on the three infants including
the tests of hormone levels and skeletal age found no evidence of a notable
acceleration in infants development, leading to the final result that there is
no link between the baby girls' premature development and Synutra's infant
formula.

The Ministry of Health also collected 31 samples with 20 brands from 14 other
producers for analysis, showing there is no abnormal hormone content in the
Synutra milk powder or other products tested in the market, Deng Haihua told
the news conference.

Knowing the result of the investigation, a parent from Hubei Province, who
didn't give his name, angrily and helplessly, told Caijing reporters that there
were still many doubts and questions unclarified with the cases, to which the
government sidestepped giving direct answers.

Problems relating to this seemingly false alarm have risen during the
disputes between government and the parents of premature babies, such as the
accurate diagnose of true precocious puberty and pseudo-precocious puberty, the
lack of hormone tests institutions and the high costs of identification.

Queries From the Parents

The three baby girls in HuBei Province suffered from alleged premature
development of breasts were fourth-month old, nine-months old and 15-months old
respectively. Their parents claimed it was caused by the milk powder as their
babies have been eating Synutra's products since born.

One of the parents told our reporters after the news conference he was
disappointed, helpless and angry towards the result of the probe, saying there
were still many reasonable doubts left.

Why are the cases all related to Synutra's products? Whether or not is the
milk powder safe? Who should afford the costs of the three-month regular test
before eight years old? Who should be responsible for the true precocious
puberty once appeared due to exogenous hormone absorption?

No answers were given regarding to these questions at the news conference.
Earlier reports even claimed that local medical workers believe the two between
premature development and milk powder were connected.

According to another parent, when stopping eating the milk powder, the slumps
in his baby's left breast began to disappear, and he didn't get a satisfying
answer from the ministry.

The early appearance of breasts was a common clinical condition and there had
been no been no notable rise across the country in premature development of
breasts in children, Deng said.

Local medical institutions said they cannot distinguish the true precocious
puberty from pseudo-precocious puberty until the babies grow to eight. During
this period, the babies should be reviewed to the hospital every three
months.