Monday, September 15, 2008

A Timeline of the Sanlu Milk Case


DateProgressSource of Information
9/16/2008Another infant was confirmed died from using Fonterra Sanlu powder milkFonterra
9/15/2008Melamine was detected from products of Haoniu Dairy of Gansu Pronvince. Haoniu is a partner of Fonterra Sanlu, and follow Fonterra Sanlu production guidelineXinhua News
9/15/2008Fonterra's CEO Andrew Ferrier refused to take responsibility for not having gone public six weeks earlier when he first learned of the crisisAndrew Ferrier
9/14/2008Reporting and Discussion of the case was banned by The Propaganda Department of the CCP, except that by the official Xinhua News AgencyInternet Cache
9/13/2008 hundreds of thousands little kids flooded hospitals around the country to do ultrasound scan, which revealed 20-30% had developed varies stages kidney stones.Jinling Evening Daily, Dr. Feng's Blog
9/13/2008 Health Minister Gao Qiang held press conference, and denied any government awareness of the case before 9/8/2008Health Minister Gao Qiang
9/12/2008Evening: Health Ministry notified WHO, and launched Public Recall, 700 tons could not be tracedNews Report
9/12/2008Morning: 800 police stormed 41 dairy farms. 78 farmers were questioned and 19 were arrested for allegedly mixing melamine into milkNews Report
9/11/2008A Gansu newspaper named Sanlu in connection with infant kidney failuresNes Report
9/10/2008Professor Sun Xizhao of Nanjing University wrote to newspaper questioned an Unnamed Milk Powder caused infant kidney failure. The same day Sanlu denied any knowledge of itNews Report, Sanlu website
9/9/2008Health Ministry ordered recallHealth Ministry Gao Qiang
9/9/2008Baidu refused to honor the 'protection status' agreement when requested by SanluBaidu
9/8/2008 Prime Minister Helen Clark met with cabinet regarding the situation and ordered Fonterra to notify BeijingHelen Clark
9/8/2008 Sanlu submit a written report to Hebei Province, Health Minister Gao Qiang claimed that this was the first time Sanlu notified government officials of any levelHealth Minister Gao Qiang
9/5/2008 New Zealand Prime Minister was informed of the situation Prime Minister Helen Clark
8/27/2008Dr. Zhang Wen of Huazhong University of Science and Technology told news media that Sanlu infant formula had caused many infants kidney failures in the past year. This was the first time a medical doctor named Sanlu to the news media, although many had been discussing this privatelyNews Report
8/17/2008National top food safety agency AQSIG visited Sanlu but didn't make any decisionNews Report
8/14/2008New Zealand Embassy in Beijing was informed of the crisisHelen Clark
8/11/2008A memo from Sanlu's PR Consulting Firm Beijing Lantaotonglue noted numerious negative reference of Sanlu with connection to infants kidney failures. The memo laid out three strategies in handling the crisis, including purchasing a 'protection status' from the largest Chinese language search engine Baidu at the price of RMB Yuan 300 millionFAX from Lantaotonglue
8/6/2008Sanlu coordinates mass medical assistance for infant victimsSanlu, News Report
8/5/2008Sanlu's dairy product produced after 8/5/2008 are free of melamineTian Wenhua, Chairwoman of Sanlu
8/4/2008Sanlu stopped 2,000 tons of powder milk from entering market, and secretly withdrew 8080 tons of powder milk contaminated with Melamine through the Health MinistryTian Wenhua, Chairwoman of Sanlu
8/3/2008Sanlu alerted the situation to the City of Shijiangzhuang, Hebei Province and Health MinistryTian Wenhua, Chairwoman of Sanlu
8/2/2008Fonterra learnt of the situationFonterra
8/1/2008Melamine was detected and documentedSanlu, Tian Wenhua, Sun Dongdong, Professor of Beijing University and expert of the Health Ministry
7/23/2008Hunan TV Metropolitan Channel reported a sudden alarming rise in infant kidney stones cases. In one hospital received 16 infants with severe kidney stones. The TV program revealed all victims used the same brand of milk. Packages of canned and bagged powder milk was shown on the TV, but did not explicitly name SanluHunan TV
7/1/2008Sanlu launched investigation into infants kidney failures after drinking Sanlu infant formulaTian Wenhua
2/2/2008A Zhejiang consumer contacted Sanlu, and a range of local authorities after Sanlu powder milk made his daughter difficulty to pee. Later, without knowing the extend and seriousness of the issue, the consumer accepted an exchange of 4 boxes of Sanlu powder milk. He posted his story on a popular Internet community Tianya. This is the first documented exposure of this scandal.Internet Cache, Wu Yuanping (the consumer)
3/1/2008Reports of mass infant kidney failure started arriving Sanlu, Sanlu asked government agency's help to test dairy products which all appeared to be acceptableSanlu
3/1/2008Several Inquiries, including one made by a known kidney surgeon, was made to the top food safety agency AQSIQ. These complaints had been deleted from AQSIQ website, but still available from Google cacheInternet Cache and Dr. Feng Dongchuan's Blog
3/1/2008Hospitals around the country noticed a sharpen increase of infant kidney failure cases, many alerted the manufacture as well as local safety agenciesSanlu
1/8/2008Sanlu infant formula received the National Award of Science and Technology Progress, and became the only dairy product ever to receive this top national science and technology awardNews Report
9/2/2007The Propaganda Arm of CCP, the CCTV hailed Sanlu the top quality dairy product in its weekly 'Quality of Made-in-China' Special ProgramCCTV, YouTube
7/10/2007The Director of China FDA (State Food and Drug Administration, SDA) Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu was executed for oversight of the pet food that poisoned American catspublic record
5/8/2007In the aftermath of the US FDA findings, AQSIQ examined 399 samples of export food products and 800 domestic food products, and failed to find any trace of melamine. AQSIQ hail the result a testimony of excellent food quality in China.AQSIQ
4/20/2007AQSIQ ordered all food export must go through melamine testsAQSIQ
3/30/2007US FDA declared Melamine was detected in pet food imported from China. Hundreds of cats and little dogs became sick or dead after eating import pet food.news Report
11/25/2005New Zealand based Fonterra Acquired 43% of Sanlu, Fonterra has 3 representations on Sanlu's 7 persons boardPublic Record, Fonterra
7/5/2005900 packages of Sanlu yoghurt were confiscated by Tianjin authorities for post-dating production dateNews Report
6/1/2004Sanlu was named in a 'Big Head Baby' scandal of producing low cost powder milk with zero nutritional value and caused 13 babies' death. After an aggressive emergency campaign, Health Minister Gao Qiang arranged to have Sanlu removed from the blacklist.News Report

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this - I have two children (Chinese born - adopted to USA) that may have been exposed and it is helpful to know how far back this may go.

Bemused Mom said...

Hi - Thank you for the timeline.
Do you happen to know when China began testing milk for protein levels? I am another adoptive parent looking for an earliest date.