Almost 13,000 Chinese babies now sick from contaminated milk

China's Health Ministry says almost 13,000 babies have been taken to hospital suffering from the effects of drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine - most 2 years old or younger and four children have already died.

Melamine is a chemical rich in the compound nitrogen which when added to 'watered-down' milk helps it to pass quality inspections, when measures of protein levels are checked.

The number of sick children has now doubled in China's escalating milk scandal which has left many of the Chinese public anxious and distrustful of food quality and food regulations in China.

Ever since China's largest producer of infant milk powder, Sanlu, announced that babies had developed kidney stones and other complications after drinking the tainted milk, hospitals have been overwhelmed with frightened parents demanding attention.

Melamine is an industrial chemical banned from foods and it has been found in 10% of milk and drinking yoghurt samples taken from three major dairy companies.

Premier Wen Jiabao has visited hospitals in the national capital in a bid to reassure anxious parents and assure them that the culprits face harsh punishment and saying the physical health of the public must be made a priority.

In the latest cases a three-year-old Hong Kong girl was found to have a kidney stone after drinking a milk product tainted by melamine - she is the territory's first suspected victim of the milk scandal.

The Chinese Government has now issued recalls for dairy products from 22 companies and the suspicion is that farmers who sell milk to Chinese food companies used the melamine to disguise watered-down milk.

When other major Chinese dairy products were also found to contain melamine many countries clamped down on China's milk product exports.

Question have been raised about products by Swiss manufacturer Nestle which used milk powder made in China, and Taiwan, Japan and Singapore have recalled Chinese-made dairy products.

Malaysia and Brunei have banned milk products from China even though neither country currently imports Chinese dairy items because of concern melamine has been found not only in powdered milk but also in liquid milk sold by China's biggest dairies.

This is just the latest in a plethora of problems with both food and other products from China and assurances by the government that inspection procedures have been overhauled, do little to allay the fear.

Last year exports of medicines, toys, pet food ingredients and other products killed and sickened people and pets in North and South America - in the pet food scandal it was also melamine which was the culprit.