Couple poisoned milk to ruin rival
By Wang Qingchu |
April 13, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A COUPLE who ran a dairy farm poisoned the milk on a neighboring farm due to a grudge against their rival, killing three babies and sickening 36 others on April 7 in Pingliang City, Gansu Province, police said.
The husband and wife identified by their surnames Wu and Ma resented Ma Wenxuan because of business disputes after he opened a dairy farm next to theirs. They dropped poison in milk products made by Ma Wenxuan's dairy farm twice to get revenge, police said yesterday, according to China News Service.
Most of the people poisoned were children under the age of 14. The youngest of the fatalities was just 36 days old. All of them developed symptoms after drinking milk Ma Wenxuan's dairy farm produced on April 6.
Wu bought nitrite, a food additive used to preserve meat, and put a small amount of it in the milk produced by Ma Wenxuan's farm on April 5. Some people had mild food poisoning symptoms and no serious results were caused. Wu's wife dropped poison into the milk again on April 6, causing the deaths, the report said.
The couple have been detained pending further investigation, police said.
The poisoned milk was sold directly to consumers without any safety inspections, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ma Shuqin, mother of an 80-day-old baby who survived the poisoning, told Xinhua she knew there had been no safety checks on the locally produced milk, but felt she had no other option.
In 2008, melamine-tainted milk powder killed at least six infants and sickened 300,000 across the country, which deeply eroded consumer confidence in the country's dairy industry. The chemical was added to make diluted milk appear to be rich in protein.
"I don't trust the domestic milk powder after the melamine scandal, but I can not afford expensive imported powder, so the fresh milk seemed like a natural choice," Ma Shuqin was quoted as saying. "Now I really don't know what is safe for my baby."
After the melamine scandal, the only three milk collection stations in Pingliang were closed. Selling milk directly to consumers became the only option for dairy farmers, said Wang Luxiang, deputy chief of the Municipal Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau.
The husband and wife identified by their surnames Wu and Ma resented Ma Wenxuan because of business disputes after he opened a dairy farm next to theirs. They dropped poison in milk products made by Ma Wenxuan's dairy farm twice to get revenge, police said yesterday, according to China News Service.
Most of the people poisoned were children under the age of 14. The youngest of the fatalities was just 36 days old. All of them developed symptoms after drinking milk Ma Wenxuan's dairy farm produced on April 6.
Wu bought nitrite, a food additive used to preserve meat, and put a small amount of it in the milk produced by Ma Wenxuan's farm on April 5. Some people had mild food poisoning symptoms and no serious results were caused. Wu's wife dropped poison into the milk again on April 6, causing the deaths, the report said.
The couple have been detained pending further investigation, police said.
The poisoned milk was sold directly to consumers without any safety inspections, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ma Shuqin, mother of an 80-day-old baby who survived the poisoning, told Xinhua she knew there had been no safety checks on the locally produced milk, but felt she had no other option.
In 2008, melamine-tainted milk powder killed at least six infants and sickened 300,000 across the country, which deeply eroded consumer confidence in the country's dairy industry. The chemical was added to make diluted milk appear to be rich in protein.
"I don't trust the domestic milk powder after the melamine scandal, but I can not afford expensive imported powder, so the fresh milk seemed like a natural choice," Ma Shuqin was quoted as saying. "Now I really don't know what is safe for my baby."
After the melamine scandal, the only three milk collection stations in Pingliang were closed. Selling milk directly to consumers became the only option for dairy farmers, said Wang Luxiang, deputy chief of the Municipal Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau.
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