Angry in the Great White North

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) thinks that the contamination of the pet food might have been deliberate, but not with the intention of killing animals:

Imported ingredients used in recalled pet food may have been intentionally spiked with an industrial chemical to boost their apparent protein content, federal officials said Thursday.

That's one theory being pursued by the Food and Drug Administration as it investigates how the chemical, melamine, contaminated at least two ingredients used to make more than 100 brands of dog and cat foods.

Chinese authorities have told the FDA that the wheat gluten was an industrial product not meant for pet food, Sundlof said. Still, melamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it really is, he added. That raises the possibility the contamination was deliberate.

So this whole pet food recall was the result of someone trying to game the tests.

Makes sense. One problem, though, is that scientists are still puzzled by how melamine could turn out to be so toxic. All the data suggests it simply is not that bad.

But maybe melamine is a harmless link in a deadlier chain.

Consider this Chinese supplier's clearinghouse website's description of calcium cyanamide:

Application: A kind of pesticide with low toxicity and no residuals and also a kind of slow-release green pesticides and fertilizers with the efficiency of pesticide, germicide and weedicide. It can raise earth temperature; Adjust alkalinity and acidity of the soil. Applying it can speed up decomposing the roots, stems and straws of the plants left in the soil and then they can be changed into organic matter.

Meanwhile, it can inhibit nitrification. The most outstanding advantages of the product are its dual efficiency of pesticide and fertilizer, no flying when applying and no environmental pollution.

Low toxicity? No residuals? Green pesticide?

Here is what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says about calcium cyanamide:

Calcium cyanamide is used as a fertilizer, pesticide, and in the manufacture of other chemicals. It is irritating to the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract in humans. Acute (short-term) inhalation exposure may cause gastritis, rhinitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, and tracheobronchitis. Acute oral exposure may cause a vasomotor reaction, resulting in intense flushing of the face, upper body, and arms. Tachycardia and hypotension have also been observed in humans following acute oral exposure. Chronic (long-term) occupational exposure has been reported to cause chronic rhinitis with perforation of the nasal septum in workers.

That was in 2000. This National Institute of Health page from 2007 quotes the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) as stating, "The product is no longer used as a defoliant, fertilizer, or herbicide."

Why am I interested in calcium cyanamide? One reason is that calcium cyanamide turns into melamine at relatively low temperatures:

It polymerizes to dicyandiamide when heated over 150 C and to tricyantriamide as well as to melamine. Its metal salt especially calcium cyanamide is an environmentally friendly multi-purpose fertilizer which reacts with water to release ammonia and calcium carbonate to supply nitrogen and lime to plants and soil.

So if calcium cyanamide was added to the wheat gluten and rice protein in order to boost the nitrogen content, residual amounts would turn into melamine during the production of the pet food.

But consider the by-products of calcium cyanamide -- ammonia and calcium. Both of them are nasty. Ammonia is obvious. But calcium overdose in animals causes renal failure.

Nice theory, but the ASPCA has nixed it:

Q. What about reports that pets may be suffering from Vitamin D overdose?

A. The ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) has an extensive amount of data on the effects of Vitamin D overdose in pets, and believes this is completely unrelated to the current crisis.

Vitamin D3, or ‘cholecalciferol,’ is sold commercially as a rodenticide in the United States. If animals consume significant doses, their blood calcium and phosphorus levels increase significantly. Within 12 hours, animals begin to display symptoms such as decreased appetite, depression, vomiting, excessive thirst and urination—and within 48 hours, renal failure sets in.

However, the difference in cases of Vitamin D overdose is that the increase in blood calcium leads to the generalized calcification—or hardening—of tissues throughout the animal’s body. This calcification can be seen on X-rays, and is especially apparent in the kidneys, heart and intestinal tract.

The documented reports by veterinary pathologists involved in the pet food recall have thus far not shown any such generalized calcification.

I'm just poking around, following the paths to and from melamine. Though I doubt that this calcium cyanamide theory is right, it shows how melamine could be a sign of some other compound was added to a component of the pet food by Chinese authorities with a very different set of attitudes to potentially dangerous substances.

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