Melamine Defined
Melamine was first synthesized by German chemist Justus von Liebig in 1834. Initially, the process involved converting calcium cyanamide to dicyandiamide. This was heated to a melting point to produce melamine.. However, today most industrial manufacturers use urea to produce melamineWebster’s Online Dictionary gives this definition for melamine:
1 : a white crystalline organic base C3H6N6 with a high melting point that is used especially in melamine resins 2 : a melamine resin or a plastic made from such a resin.
Melamine is also a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. When animals eat cyromazine, melamine is produced. Plants too can be affected by melamine through exposure to cyromazine. Melamine is commonly used in industrial settings to produce a wide range of durable goods, such as flooring, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Melamine combines with cyanuric acid to form melamine cyanurate. This is the substance involved in the recent Chinese protein export contaminations. It has been discovered that some Chinese dairy plants have added cyanurate to milk products to overstate the protein level. Melamine is also the reason for the huge numbers of deaths in cats and dogs in 2007 in the U.S. Ingesting melamine has been found to cause kidney stones, urinary tract infections and skin problems. The feed had come from China.
Worse still is that melamine tainted milk products have caused illness or death in over 50,000 Chinese babies. It was this disastrous loss of life and health that prompted countries all over the world to take action against tainted Chinese milk and to check a myriad of other products that are ingested by people or animals. Many of these have also found to be melamine laced.
