SHOTLIST
1. Senior Health Ministry official Gao Qiang walking on podium
2. Cutaway cameramen
3. Wide of press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Gao Qiang, Senior Health Ministry official:
“According to an investigation, Sanlu milk powder was only exported in small parts to Taiwan for food producing, all other products were sold in the Chinese domestic market and never exported to other countries or regions. Up until 12 September there have been a total of 432 cases of baby kidney stone reported to the Ministry of Health.”
5. Cutaway press
6. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Yang Chongyong, Deputy Governor of Hebei Province:
“At the same time the public security department has started their investigation on illegal activities of criminals. We will severely punish the criminals when the crimes are confirmed by the public security departments, in fact we have detained 19 suspects and summoned 78 people.”
7. Cutaway cameraman
8. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Gao Qiang, Senior Health Ministry official:
“The Ministry of Health has informed the World Health Organisation (WHO), the health department of Hong Kong and Macau, the embassy of New Zealand and medias. The Taiwan affairs office of State Council has informed the relevant organisations of Taiwan. We warned the public to stop using Sanlu milk powder immediately.”
9. Zoom out of officials and reporters leaving
STORYLINE
A Chinese dairy that sold milk powder linked to one death and kidney stones in infants knew it contained a banned chemical weeks before ordering a recall, a senior Health Ministry official said on Saturday, as the number of sick babies rose to 432.
Officials said some tainted powder was exported to Taiwan but none was sent to other foreign markets.
“According to an investigation, Sanlu milk powder was only exported in small parts to Taiwan for food producing, all other products were sold in the Chinese domestic market and never exported to other countries or regions,” Gao Qiang told reporters.
Investigators have detained 19 people and are questioning 78 to find out how melamine was added to milk supplied to Sanlu Group Co., China’s biggest milk powder producer, said Yang Chongyong, Deputy Provincial Governor of Hebei province, where Sanlu Group is located.
In Taiwan, authorities seized thousands of bags of Chinese milk powder. There was no word on whether any was consumed in Taiwan.
Chinese officials defended the speed of their response to the country’s latest product safety disaster.
They said authorities were only told of the contamination last Monday, even though Sanlu received complaints as early as March and its tests found melamine in August.
Gao gave no indication what penalties Sanlu might face but said those to blame would be dealt with severely.
Officials are investigating whether word of the contamination was suppressed, said Yang.
“We will severely punish the criminals when the crimes are confirmed by the public security departments” Yang said.
Yang said he did not know the identities of the people detained but said investigators were looking into whether dairy farmers added the chemical.
Gao said it might have been done to fool quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk’s volume.
Melamine is rich in nitrogen, and standard tests for protein in food ingredients measure nitrogen levels.
“Up until 12 September there have been a total of 432 cases of baby kidney stone reported to the Ministry of Health,” Gao said.
He said Beijing was sending experts to treat them and will pay for their care.
“We warned the public to stop using Sanlu milk powder immediately,” he said.
The biggest group of victims is in China itself, where shoddy or counterfeit products are common.
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/130f0b46fa1e029155d347f091c8823a
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Send your message to us:
Post time: Jun-25-2017