Melamine From Tableware Seaps Into Food Study Shows

Taiwanese researchers conducted a small study showing that eating soup from bowls made out of melamine leads to increased melamine concentration in the urine, a chemical that led to poisoning in very high concentrations in babies, killing 6 babies in China in 2008.

The study, led by Chia-Fang Wu from Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan, had six people between 20 and 30 years old eat hot soup for breakfast out of melamine bowls and another six eat soup from ceramic bowls. Afterwards, the participants' urine was monitored for the next 12 hours. The two groups were also reversed after 3 weeks.

For the rest of the day, the total melamine excreted in study volunteers' urine was 8.35 micrograms following the melamine-bowl breakfast, compared to 1.31 micrograms after breakfast from a melamine-free bowl.

The study didn't touch the matter of possible health implications of the chemical agent. It is not known if the measured urine levels would lead to any long-term medical problems or if participants' bodies were storing any of the chemical.  It is only known that high concentrations, as occur when ingesting contaminated food or liquids at once, can lead to death in babies and kidney problems, including kidney stones, in adults.

Wu and colleagues cautioned in JAMA Internal Medicine, "Although the clinical significance of what levels of urinary melamine concentration has not yet been established, the consequences of long-term melamine exposure should still be of concern."

Not involved in the study, Dr. Craig Langman, who studies kidney diseases at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, commented on the results: "American exposure from tableware must be astonishingly small, or not at all. (However), because of the Chinese poisoning epidemic, we have to be entirely vigilant all the time about our food supply."

He said anyone who has a choice might as well avoid buying tableware made with melamine, because it does interact with some acidic foods and in the microwave. "If you can avoid it, why use it?" he said.