Deadly milk poisoning was deliberate, police find

Apr 11, 2011, 4:45 GMT

Beijing - Chinese police found that nitrite-contaminated milk that killed three infants and sickened 36 people was deliberately poisoned, state media said Monday.

Police in the north-western province of Gansu were questioning several suspects in an 'intentional food poisoning case' after the 39 people were treated at a hospital in Pingliang city, Zhu Lemin, a city police spokesman, told the official Xinhua news agency.

Three children under 2 died after consuming the tainted milk Thursday.

The hospital had discharged 19 other victims by Sunday and the remaining 17 were all in stable condition, the agency quoted officials as saying.

Most of the victims were children under 14, earlier reports said.

The agency gave no details of the suspects, but on Friday, it said police had sealed off two dairy farms and questioned their managers.

China's dairy industry has been plagued by safety issues since 2008 when at least six children died and about 300,000 were sickened after drinking milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Milk producers had added it to watered-down raw milk to artificially raise its protein content.

Since the 2008 scandal, 533 of the nation's 1,176 dairy producers have failed to qualify for new production licenses, a government food safety watchdog said this month.

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