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Concerns about the size of genital organs are often unwarranted.

MOST humans are concerned about the size of objects. For many, big is beautiful up to a point after which, it may become ugly. For others, small is beautiful again up to a point after which, it becomes unacceptable. Only a few of us have no views on size.

As it is with inanimate objects, so it is with the human body. Many adults are concerned about the size of their genital organs, particularly its relationship to sexual performance and satisfaction.

The paucity of information in the public domain, the gaps in consumers’ medical knowledge, misinformation and advertisements in the print and electronic media and the reluctance of many doctors and health care professionals in discussing such matters have contributed to misperceptions.

Men’s size

The male is fascinated with the penis from an early age. As boys become adults, many become convinced that it would be better if the penis is just a bit longer. Information from friends and advertisements reinforce the perception that there is a relationship between penile length and manhood.

Most females cannot understand this fascination or obsession. There are reports that chance remarks about small penile size, particularly in the bedroom, have led to impotence (erectile dysfunction).

When a male sees his penis, it is at an angle, which makes it appear to be shorter than it really is. But when he sees another male’s penis, there is no such foreshortening effect, so it appears that the other’s penis is longer.

One should remember the facts about penile size. Wessells and his colleagues reviewed publications on penile length in 1996. The average length of a flaccid penis, measured from the base to the tip, is 8.85 to 10.7cm while that of an erect penis is 12.89 to 15.5cm. During an erection, the shorter flaccid penile length of a male will increase more than that of another with a longer flaccid length.

It should be remembered that the vagina can accommodate any penile size as it is distensible because of its capacity to increase in length if an object is introduced gradually. There is no relationship between race, height and penile size. Neither is there a relationship between penile size and sexual performance and satisfaction. Some men have bigger penises than others, just as some men are taller or of bigger build than others but penile size is no indicator of virility.

Concerns about sizes

If one is unhappy about his penis size, it is advisable to consult a general practitioner or urologist. In most instances, reassurance that the penis size is normal is all that is necessary.

Many people advertise their claims of methods of increasing penis size. The expert opinions on the methods are:

* Pills or patches – a complete waste of time
* Penile enlargement exercises – probably futile
* Penile suction devices – probably of little use
* Penile enlargement surgery – uncertain value with risk of bleeding, infections and deformity.

Surgery may lead to the flaccid penis appearing longer but it makes no difference to the size at erection. There are reports of some modest improvement in length with penis stretchers (expanders). Some men may want to reduce the penis size. Although this can be done, there are risks of bleeding, infection and deformity. A urologist should always be consulted prior to the use of devices or surgery.

Female size

The vulva is the visible part of the female genital organs. It includes the clitoris, labia and urethral opening. It is not uncommon for women to be concerned about the size of their vulva and vagina as it plays a major role in their sexuality. A common myth is that a large vagina is associated with excess sex. This is incorrect as the frequency of sex has no impact on vulval and/or vaginal size.

Braun and Kitzinger in their publication Culture, Health and Sexuality put it succinctly: “With the construction of women’s genitals as problematic, the ‘private’ female body becomes a site for potential improvement. Socio-cultural accounts of vaginal size in the West construct a tight (but not too tight) vagina as desirable, and a ‘loose’ vagina as undesirable. In women talk, we found a curious pattern: women identified the cultural desirability of a tight vagina, and noted negative uses to which this is put (such as the positioning of women with ‘loose’ vaginas as promiscuous).

“However, when women described their personal concerns about vaginal size, these were couched in terms of anxiety about being too tight. We argue that constructions of vaginal size are problematic because they create another site of bodily concern for women, and are used to control and abuse women. We suggest that they also reflect a disregard of women’s sexual pleasure, and a lack of familiarity with the functions of the vagina.”

Weber and his colleagues studied the relation of vaginal anatomy to sexual function and concluded: “Vaginal anatomy measured by introital calibre, length and vulvo-vaginal atrophy does not correlate well with sexual function, particularly symptoms of dyspareunia (painful intercourse) and vaginal dryness.”

If a woman has not given birth, there is no way that her vulva or vagina is too big. However, childbirth affects vulval and vaginal size. The more babies delivered vaginally, the more likely the size will be increased. This is because the vaginal muscles and its supporting tissues are damaged during childbirth, particularly when labour is prolonged or difficult.

The increase in vulval and vaginal size can be prevented by adherence to pelvic floor exercises for six months after delivery. This involves tightening up the pelvic floor muscles, like trying to stop passing urine, holding the contraction for 10 to 15 seconds, relaxing for 10 to 15 seconds, repeating the contracting and relaxing for five to 10 minutes and doing the exercises three to four times a day.

Too big

The effects of too big a vagina include less than satisfactory vaginal intercourse for the female and/or male, air and/or water getting into the vagina and descent (prolapse) of the vagina, uterus and other pelvic organs in later life.

There are different treatment methods. Intensive pelvic floor exercises described above for six months will lead to improvement. Working at vaginal muscle developers for some time can also improve matters. A pelvic floor repair done by a gynaecologist brings together and tightens the weakened pelvic floor muscles and tissues.

Many women are concerned that the vulval lips (labia) are too large, too long or protrude unequally. If there are such concerns, a gynaecological consultation will be helpful. In most instances, reassurance that one is normal is all that is necessary. If there is a genuine abnormality, it can be corrected surgically.

Sometimes, a female may feel that her vulva and vagina are too small. They are statistically very rarely correct. A small vulva and vagina may be the result of surgery to the vulva and vagina. Too small a vagina can occur when there is a vaginal septum, which may lead to a double barrel-shaped vagina. The symptoms include inability to insert a tampon, pain on vaginal intercourse or total inability to have intercourse.

The vast majority of women with these symptoms have a normal sized vagina. However, many of them suffer from sustained contraction of the vaginal muscles whenever there is an approach to the genital organs (vaginismus). An internal examination will provide the answer to questions about smallness. A vaginal septum is easily treated surgically. The treatment of vaginismus is challenging and requires an expenditure of time and effort by both patient and doctor. If the vulva and vagina are genuinely small, it can be corrected surgically.

Whenever there are concerns about the size of the genital organs, it is advisable to consult a doctor. To do otherwise is risky and to have an untrained person do the job is to court disaster.

When you see someone in trouble, do you help or just gawp? Scientific studies provide answers that may surprise you.

When pub owner Saravanan M, saw a motorcyclist swiping a woman’s handbag outside the local bank, he chased after the robber in his car. But the motorcyclist weaved in and out of traffic and got away.

“If I see that sort of thing happening, I try to knock them,” Saravenan maintains. “You’ve got to help.”

Charles G, a senior executive in an international company, saw a waitress being slapped in the face. Although he was on crutches at the time, he intervened. But the man would not back off.

“I knocked him down and went down with him,” Charles recalls, “But I don’t regret it.”

We all like to think we would help if we saw someone in trouble but victims of theft and accidents often report that bystanders are better at being witnesses than they are at being supporters.

A series of scientific studies sheds light on what particular circumstances rule our behaviour at such times.

Public murder

In 1964 in New York, Kitty Genovese came home late from work. The 28-year-old club manager parked her car 100m away from her front door and was instantly pounced on by someone who stabbed her.

When Genovese cried out she’d been stabbed, one neighbour looked out of the window and shouted at her assailant. Several others who also heard the disturbance looked out of their windows. Frightened away by the attention, her attacker fled. Genovese staggered into the doorway of her apartment and collapsed.

Her attacker returned 10 minutes later, searched the area, found the barely conscious girl, sexually assaulted her, robbed her and then finished her off with more slashes of his knife.

In the days that followed, investigators realised that about 20 people had witnessed the crime. This information caused a furore and sparked a national debate about the state of society, public morality and civil obligation.

When police arrested Winston Moseley some weeks later, he confessed to the murder as well as two others. Moseley hadn’t known Genovese, he simply looked around for victims and pounced when the circumstances were favourable. This knowledge added fuel to the fire.

The Kitty Genovese story rumbled on for years. At first, it seemed an example of appalling callousness. However, investigators later found some extenuating circumstances.

Analysis showed most of the witnesses didn’t appreciate what they had seen. Some saw only part of the attack, and thought it was not serious. Nobody saw the attempted rape and final kill.

Some neighbours who were disturbed by what they heard and saw tried to report it. Calls were made to the police after the first attack but as people were unclear what they had seen, the police took no action. It was only after a witness to the second attack called that police responded. By then, it was of course too late.

However, the question remained why none of Genovese’s neighbours had walked down to check on the girl after she’d first been attacked.

It was this aspect that also prompted a series of scientific investigations into understanding what prompts us to act when we see someone in trouble and what causes us to remain mere spectators.

When do people help?

Studies showed that when we witness someone in trouble, what we do about it depends on how involved we feel.

The more people there are in the vicinity, the less we feel it is our responsibility to help out. This means that we might help a victim of snatch theft if we are the sole witness, but we’re likely to stand about and look on if there are 20 people in the street.

The reasons for this behaviour are not quite clear. Many bystanders report they feel shy about stepping up, believing that someone else in the crowd is bound to do it better.

Psychologists call this “let someone else deal with this” attitude The Bystander Effect, Diffusion Of Responsibility and occasionally Audience Inhibition.

We are all liable to think twice before helping one person, but if there are several victims, such as a party of travellers who have fallen overboard from a ship, the bystander effect vanishes and everyone pitches in. It seems that the sheer profusion of need overwhelms our shyness.

Also, people who have received first aid training are more likely to help out in emergencies than others. Competency is directly correlated to action. A good reason perhaps for running first aid training classes in all schools and businesses!

Familiarity also helps. We are more likely to help people we know. As Charles who acted the knight in shining armour says, “I helped because I knew that girl. But I’d think twice about interfering if they’re people I don’t know. I mean, some people have private issues.”

Studies confirm that friendship is a powerful motivator to help but recognition can also spur assistance. We are more likely to help someone we feel empathy for, as in someone who looks like us in terms of race and background, or someone who reminds us of a friend or relative.

The folk wisdom that says people in small communities are more likely to help strangers than people in big communities is also true. Some scientists believe this is because our instincts lead us to help relatives more easily than non-relatives.

Others say that the cold big city attitude arises from stress. They suggest that when too many things happen around us, part of us switches off. This allows us to get along with our own lives without the myriad of distractions taking place around us.

Whoever is right, one thing is for certain: population by square mile is an accurate indicator of how helpful people will be.

The fear factor

The fear that getting involved might bring trouble on you also plays a big part. As hair salon owner Eileen S observes, “Gangsters carry parangs and guns. You want to help because you feel pity but you don’t want to get hurt.”

Thomas, an American lecturer currently working in Malaysia, says violence is the reason he thinks twice about interfering in any public disturbance.

“They carry firearms back where I’m from,” he says laconically. “If you interfere, you’re liable to have someone stick a gun in your face.”

Also, in the US, people who drag someone out of a burning car or get rid of that bit of hamburger that’s lodged down someone’s throat aren’t treated as heroes but are instead targets of massive lawsuits.

As this trend has actively discouraged people there from helping their neighbours, some places have enacted a Good Samaritan Law that protects people who are trying to help from the parties that punish their good deeds.

Thankfully, Malaysia does not have laws that actively encourage callousness. However, fear that being involved in something “not quite right” can have bad consequences can be a hugely inhibiting factor in emergency situations.

Using science to get help

If you are the victim of a crime, or in some other trouble, and you happen to be surrounded by a gawking crowd suffering from bystander effect, the trick is to encourage decisions that will get you help.

When we see an incident, we automatically fall into a five-step pattern of analysis. We notice something odd, and decide if it is an emergency. If it is an emergency, we have to decide if we are responsible. If we decide we are, we decide how to help. Then we offer that help.

If you are a victim, the first obstacle is to ensure everyone knows you are in trouble. Although this may be obvious to you, others may not see it.

Studies show that most of us, particularly city slickers, are very liable to mistake signs of trouble for everyday occurrences.

A scream is more likely to be a child demanding ice-cream than someone being brutally stabbed.

A house or personal alarm means someone has pressed the wrong button again rather than be a genuine call for emergency.

Someone who falls in the street could be on drugs or drunk rather than suffering from a fainting spell or heart attack.

A simple and effective way to get action is to focus on one person, look them firmly in the eye, and tell them this is an emergency and that they need to help you — “You sir in the blue shirt! I think I have a broken wrist. Please will you help me up and take me to the nearest clinic,” has a very high chance of working.

Also, research shows that being perceived as a person worthy of help is also a good motivator. Smiling when you ask for help as well as being thankful and praising the people that offer assistance up are all useful strategies for turning bystanders into good Samaritans.

Science helps explain how the universe works, and it is useful to understand why we react the way we do.

However, it is within our power to overcome inbuilt drives and substitute better reactions. Perhaps the best motivator to make that change was suggested by the poet John Donne in 1624 when he wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.”

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, who revealed this, said the Government’s many promotions to get people to lead a healthy lifestyle, has not worked.

“Nearly half or 43.1% of the adult population are overweight and this is a serious problem,” he said, adding that leading a sedentary lifestyle could pose serious health problems.

Liow added, “one in every three adult Malaysians suffers from hypertension while one in five has high blood cholesterol levels.”

People suffering from heart diseases have also increased by 18% from 37,284 in 2003 to 44,2001 in 2006, while deaths from coronary heart disease increased by 36% from 2,697 to 3,673 for the corresponding period, he said.

He said the ministry was targeting the young through its Dr Muda programme in primary schools and hopes to launch the Prostar (Healthy Living Project for the Young) project in secondary schools soon.

Liow was speaking to reporters after closing the 6th National Skipping and Fitballrobic championship at the Sport Complex here yesterday.

“Although we obtained these statistics from a survey done two years ago, the number of Malaysians suffering such ailments must have increased,” said Liow.

He called on Malaysians to exercise at least 30 minutes a day.

Apple Inc. will no longer force iPhone software developers to sign a nondisclosure agreement that many had said was hampering their ability to work.

The switch, announced Wednesday, comes a week after the introduction of the first phone loaded with Google Inc.’s Android software, an open-source operating system that lets developers make and sell programs without restriction.

In contrast, Apple had required every person who downloaded the iPhone software developer kit to pledge not to speak about its contents, even to fellow developers.

Recently, the Cupertino, California-based company also barred programmers whose applications it rejected from iTunes — the only legitimate place to sell iPhone “apps” — from posting the reasons for rejection on the Web. The move fueled a new wave of critiques about Apple’s approval process, already seen by many developers as secretive and capricious.

Apple said the iPhone nondisclosure agreement, or NDA, was meant to protect Apple’s innovations, “so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before.”

However, programmers complained the NDA prohibited them from sharing tips or comparing solutions to common problems. Sharing information could help them produce programs faster and with fewer bugs, they said.

In response, Apple acknowledged that the NDA created a burden on the developer community, and so it will no longer apply to iPhone software that has already been released. Programmers who are working with unreleased test versions of new iPhone software will still be bound by an NDA.

That’s in line with the sort of agreements Apple makes with Macintosh computer software programmers, and with practices of other companies, including Microsoft Corp.

Eighty years after the discovery of penicillin, researchers say they are on the verge of developing a new class of antibiotics.

Publishing in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Cell, scientists at Rutgers University describe a group of antibiotic compounds, first isolated decades ago from naturally occurring antibacterial substances in soil. Among them, researchers say, is a compound called myxopyronin that shows great promise. It has been synthesized in the lab and shown to be safe in animal trials, and although the drug hasn’t been tested in humans yet, cell-based experiments suggest that it is potent enough to kill a wide range of stubborn bugs, including drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis and the deadly type of staph known as MRSA

The Rutgers research reflects a much-needed, if slow, renewal of scientific interest in antibiotics development. The last two decades of the 20th century saw nearly zero progress, and in those years several disease-causing bacteria evolved resistance to commonly used drugs. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 40% of staph infections in the U.S. in 2006 were MRSA — a bug that now kills more Americans a year than AIDS. Today, the first line of treatment against MRSA is vancomycin, a formidable antibiotic that has been around since the 1950s and is otherwise typically considered a drug of last resort. In the developing world, health workers report a proliferation of XDR (extensively drug-resistant) and MDR (multidrug-resistant) tuberculosis, against which the current first-line antibiotics, rifamycins, developed in the 1960s, have also become useless.

“I would say that most of the American public believe that bacterial infections were conquered with the discovery of penicillin and streptomycin and that the dawn of the antibiotic age meant the end of bacterial infection as an important threat,” says Richard Ebright, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Rutgers and a co-author on the study.

What has happened instead, says Zhenkun Ma, head of research at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, who was not involved in the new study, is that “we use really old drugs to fight a very new disease. TB evolves every day.” So do all other bacteria. Increasingly, the old arsenal of antibiotics is losing power.

Ebright hopes myxopyronin will be especially useful in the battle against drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease for which clinicians have never had a perfect therapy. The success of TB treatment depends on the destruction of active and dormant bacteria to prevent relapse — something that few existing antibiotics have been able to do. One way to kill a dormant cell is to target biochemical processes that continue even in latency — there aren’t many of those. But myxopyronin works by interfering with the enzyme RNA polymerase, which controls gene transcription in cells and is necessary for cell survival, dormant or not.

Rifamycins, the main drugs currently used to treat tuberculosis, attack the same RNA polymerase target, but at a different site. That means the old drugs and the new drugs “should not have cross-resistance,” says Ma. Any new drugs will work against bacteria that have developed resistance to current drugs, but won’t interfere with the way the current drugs work.

Armed with a new biochemical understanding of how myxopyronin functions, along with detailed models of its behavior inside bacterial cells, researchers say drug development is feasible at last. Ebright says the drug could be in clinical human trials within five years. “What has not been possible previously was design of new derivatives ,” says Ebright. “It’s now possible to make new derivatives that are expressly designed to…have higher potency.”

New genetic links to male pattern baldness have been discovered by researchers in England and Germany.

It’s the second genetic connection to the kind of hair loss that many men — and women — experience as they grow older, said Felix F. Brockschmidt, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bonn and one of the authors of a report published online Oct. 12 in the journal Nature Genetics.

“The first gene known until now is on the X chromosome,” Brockschmidt said. “It is the most important for alopecia [hair loss]. We are sure that this new locus we found is the second most important.”

The discovery could open the way for genetic tests to single out men most likely to lose hair as they age, Brockschmidt said. “Screening for the X chromosome locus and also for this new one can possibly show the risk of male pattern baldness,” he said.

But whether something can be done to prevent hair loss in people with the gene variants is another story, Brockschmidt acknowledged. One of the new studies was financed, in part, by Glaxo SmithKline, a pharmaceutical company that might seek commercial benefit from its support. And one small company already markets a $149 genetic screening test for male pattern baldness.

That test looks at variants of a gene governing receptors for androgens, which are male hormones. That gene location, on the X chromosome, was identified only a few years ago. A man has only one copy of the X chromosome, inherited from his mother. The new gene locus is on chromosome 20. Men and women alike have two copies of chromosome 20, inherited from both father and mother.

Any preventive treatment is far in the future, Brockschmidt stressed. “As soon as we know the gene and how it functions, we can do something,” he said. “Right now, we have identified the locus but not the gene.”

The work done in Germany paralleled a study led by researchers at Kings College London, with the results of that study differing slightly. It included 1,125 men assessed for male pattern baldness. Two regions on chromosome 20 were found to be associated with the condition. And a further study of another 1,650 men found a sevenfold increase in the incidence of baldness in the one in seven men carrying variants in both the X chromosome and chromosome 20 regions.

The new results “are certainly putting us closer to a genetic test for developing alopecia,” said Dr. George Cotsarelis, director of the Hair and Scalp Clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

But, he added, a negative reading on such a test would be more informative than a positive result showing the presence of the baldness-related genes.

“If you don’t have the genes, there is a negative predictive value of 96 percent,” he said. “If you do have the genes, there is a positive predictive value of about 14 percent.”

The currently marketed genetic test got a low grade from Cotsarelis. “It can predict baldness 60 percent of the time, and 50 percent of men will become bald,” he said.

BEIJING (AP) — More than 10,000 children remain hospitalized after being sickened in China’s tainted milk scandal, officials said Wednesday, as the government released its first rules on allowable levels of the chemical blamed in the ailments.

The Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site that eight of the 10,666 children were in serious condition after drinking milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can lead to kidney stones and possibly life-threatening kidney failure.

No new deaths have been recorded, it said. The scandal has so far been blamed for the deaths of four babies and the sickening of more than 54,000 others.

But the effects of the scandal continue to be felt, forcing the government to deal with festering health and public relations issues. China’s food exports have increasingly suffered, with more nations issuing import bans.

Dairy suppliers have been accused of adding melamine — used in products including plastics, paint and adhesives — to watered-down milk to make the product appear rich in protein and fool quality control tests. There had been no previous standards.

Under Health Ministry guidelines released Wednesday, melamine is limited to one part per million for infant formula and 2.5 parts per million for liquid milk, milk powder and food products that contain more than 15 percent milk.

Wang Xuening, a Health Ministry official, said any items containing higher levels will be “prohibited from sale.”

Wang acknowledged that small amounts of melamine can leech from the environment and packaging into milk and other foods, but said that deliberate tainting is explicitly forbidden.

“Melamine cannot be used as an ingredient or additive in food products,” Wang said. “For those who add melamine into food products, their legal responsibility will be investigated.”

Chen Junshi, a researcher for China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the new guidelines will help officials assess whether melamine had been intentionally added or existed in the environment.

“If the amount exceeds one (part per million), we have reasons to believe it was intentionally added,” Chen said. “If the amount is below one, it’s very likely that it is because it existed in the environment.”

Levels of melamine discovered in batches of milk powder recently registered as much as 6,196 parts per million.

Guidelines in Hong Kong and New Zealand say melamine in food products is considered safe at 2.5 parts per million or less. Hong Kong meanwhile has lowered the level for children under 3 and pregnant or lactating women to one part per million.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says its experts have concluded that eating 2.5 parts per million of melamine — a minuscule amount — would not raise health risks, even if a person ate food every day that was laced with it.

Deng Haihua, a representative of the Health Ministry’s information office, said the number of children treated in hospitals since October has been “greatly reduced,” but he said he was not authorized to give any other updates.

China’s Cabinet has acknowledged that the country’s dairy industry was “chaotic” and suffered from a grave lack of oversight. It has pledged to monitor milk products from dairies to store shelves.

Even before the uproar over contaminated milk, China’s manufacturing industry had been under intense scrutiny after melamine and other industrial toxins were found last year in exports ranging from toothpaste to a pet food ingredient.

The current crisis has prompted the government to fire local and even high-level officials for negligence, while repeating earlier promises to raise product safety standards.

Meanwhile, the official Xinhua News Agency said police in the northern Chinese province of Hebei, where the dairy giant Sanlu Group is based, have arrested 14 more people in the scandal. A total of 27 people have been arrested in Hebei, it said

PETALING JAYA: Samples of White Rabbit Creamy Candy have been found to contain more than 50 times the permitted level of melamine.

Tests on Ego White Rabbit Creamy Candy samples showed that the content of melamine was 135 parts per million (ppm) compared with 2.5ppm, the level permitted by the Health Ministry.

Heath Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai has ordered outlets to remove the candy from their shelves and destroy all stocks.

Those found disobeying the directive can be prosecuted under the Food Act.

“The ministry has identified the product and company involved and has issued a directive to the state health departments to destroy the product,” he told reporters yesterday at the National Public Health Laboratory.

“They shouldn’t be selling it or giving it away for free. Consumers should also read food labels properly and call us if they have doubts.”

The public should also be on the alert when giving away food hampers or products from China, he said, adding that there were 64 products which have been tested and cleared by the ministry to date.

The latest 14 products to be cleared include Menthos Yogurt, Sam’s Real Scotch Milk Candy, Miow Miow Lobster Peanut Crisp, Crisp Lobster Peanut Crisp, Sanwa Strawberry, Double Lantern Peanut Cake, Daysun Rice Crisp Cheese and Tongxi Foods Chocolate Egg Rolls.

The others are Tongxi Foods Milk Chocolate Egg Roll, Hong Da Food Crisp Blue Berry Layer Biscuit, Lotte Koala Chocolate Snack, ZQ Chocolate Digest Biscuits, Frontier Chocolate Cream Centerfilled and Passion Frugurt Yogurt Style Snack.

He added that 775 product samples had been taken while 2,719 items were taken off the shelves.

On reports which appeared on the Health News and Earthtimes.org websites on Sept 26 that Pizza Hut Taiwan had found melamine at 70ppm in cheese packet made out of creamer and cheese powder, he said tests had found it to be free from the chemical.

The creamer for the cheese packet is supplied by a Malaysian company and it is also used to make products such as three-in-one instant coffee and cereal while the cheese powder is imported from New Zealand.

He said the ministry was also investigating the biscuit factories which were mentioned in media reports that Vietnam had found melamine in their products.

To expedite sample testing, the Chemistry Department, the National Public Health Laboratory, Universiti Malaya and the Doping Control Centre in Universiti Sains Malaysia have been roped in to help out.

Liow said that he hoped to have laboratories in Ipoh, Johor Baru and Kota Kinabalu to conduct testing.

He also said that the ministry would continue with its Level Four alert on fruits and vegetables from China.

Under Level Four, the products are allowed into the market but will be tested and rejected if they are found to contain melamine.

Eating a tiny bit of a melamine, the chemical responsible for a global food safety scare, is not harmful except when it’s in baby formula, U.S. food safety officials said Friday.

Melamine-tainted formula has sickened more than 54,000 children in China and is being blamed for the deaths of at least four tots. The chemical has also turned up in products sold across Asia, ranging from candies, to chocolates, to coffee drinks, that used dairy ingredients from China. Authorities in California and Connecticut have found melamine in White Rabbit candies imported from China.

But infant formula made in the U.S. is safe, because manufacturers do not use any ingredients from China.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that its safety experts have concluded that eating a very tiny amount of melamine — 2.5 parts per million — would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food that was tainted with the chemical every day.

Separately, a New Jersey company announced a recall of Chinese-made yogurt drinks Friday after FDA testing found melamine. The Blue Cat Flavor Drink, also called Lanmao, is sold nationwide in Asian groceries, said a spokesman for the company, Tristar Food Wholesale of Jersey City.

More U.S. recalls involving melamine can be expected as product testing continues, particularly in Asian groceries around the country, FDA officials said.

FDA officials stressed that the melamine safety assessment the agency issued Friday does not mean U.S. authorities will condone foods deliberately spiked with the chemical. The 2.5 parts-per-million standard is meant to address situations in which the chemical accidentally comes into contact with food, such as in cases where it is used for industrial purposes in a factory that makes food products.

“If products are adulterated because they contain melamine, (authorities) will take appropriate actions to prevent the products from entering commerce,” the FDA said in a statement. The agency said it was setting the 2.5 parts-per-million standard to address situations in which the chemical accidentally comes into contact with , such as in cases where it is used for industrial purposes in a factory that makes food products.

Officials also stressed that infant formula sold to U.S. consumers must be completely free of melamine.

“There is too much uncertainty to set a level in infant formula and rule out any public health concern,” the FDA said.
Health Library

In China, unscrupulous suppliers appear to have been adding melamine to make watered-down milk seem protein-rich in quality-control tests. That’s because melamine is high in nitrogen, as is protein.

Melamine first came to the attention of U.S. consumers last year, when it touched off a massive pet food recall. Chinese suppliers of bulk pet food ingredients were found to have been adding the chemical to artificially boost the protein readings of their products. Thousands of pets here were sickened, and hundreds are believed to have died.

Melamine is harmful to the kidneys. It can cause kidney stones as the body tries to eliminate it, and in extreme cases, life-threatening kidney failure.

“If products are adulterated because they contain melamine, (authorities) will take appropriate actions to prevent the products from entering commerce,” the FDA said in a statement.

Friday’s recall of Blue Cat yogurt drinks covers as many as 166,000 bottles, a little more than 3 ounces each, the company said. The drinks come in several fruit flavors, including strawberry, orange, pineapple and peach. Consumers who have bought the drinks should discard them. No illnesses have been reporte

KUALA LUMPUR: So far so good. Three months after Malaysia was told that its visa-exempt status may be revoked by the end of the year due to abuses, the British authorities are giving the thumbs-up to the corrective measures taken to date.

What is at stake is a privilege Malay­sians currently enjoy: visa-free stay in Britain for up to six months.

Britain’s “strong case” for implementing a visa regime against Malaysia is softening halfway through the six-month grace period for the Government to act and plug the loopholes.

The UK Border Agency, a shadow agency of the British Home Office, and the British High Commission are happy with the measures taken by the Malaysian authorities so far.

A UK Border Agency official, who is being based here to evaluate the compliance and security improvements being carried out, is said to be satisfied with the collaboration received.

The agency was formed in April to improve Britain’s security through stronger border protection while welcoming legitimate travellers and trade.

Britain had in July given Malay­sia until December to prevent illegal immigration and improve passport security, crime and anti-terrorism measures and cooperate in deporting Malaysians who overstayed.

If the British Home Office remains dissatisfied at the end of the grace period, Malaysia could lose its visa-exempt status from early next year.

British High Commissioner to Malaysia Boyd McCleary said in an