AP News, April 30th, 2007
WHAT IS MELAMINE?
Melamine is an organic compound, which is 67 percent nitrogen, but also contains hydrogen and carbon, said John Groves, professor of chemistry at Princeton University. It can be produced in a lab, but it is also produced when some pesticides break down, according to James Kapin of the Division of Chemical Health and Safety at the American Chemical Society.
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WHAT IS IT USED FOR?
Melamine can serve as a fertilizer, since it's high in nitrogen. Typically in the U.S., however, Kapin said melamine is used to make melamine resin, a polymer similar to plastic and used to coat countertops or cabinets because it is hard and largely heat resistant. These products are often said to be made of melamine, as a shorthand for melamine resin.
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IS IT HARMFUL?
When tested in rats and mice, melamine has shown very low toxicity, meaning it is only harmful in extremely high doses. Groves said it has produced stones that resulted in bladder tumors in rats when they were fed a diet that was 10,000 parts per million, or 1 percent, melamine. Such a dose is extremely high for a toxic substance and far surpasses what has been reportedly found in the pet food from China, Groves said. He noted, for example, there was an outcry when benzene was found in soda water to the tune of a couple of parts per billion.
Kapin said the process by which pet food is made or, more likely, the metabolic process of the animals who ate the pet food might have morphed the melamine into a different, more lethal compound, which would explain its toxicity at low levels.
