Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

 I love a free society.  When I read about the China milk case, I remind myself how lucky we are to live in the place we do.

The public is still waiting for a verdict in this case, but will it make a difference?  Punishing a couple individuals with criminal sanctions does not even begin to get at the root of the problem.  First, you have the lack of oversight that could have caught this problem early by testing the milk; and second, you have the cover-up once the poisoned milk was discovered.   There is no way to cover up something like this without dozens of people knowing about it. 

In the good ole’ US of A, at least we have the FDA looking out for us.  When was the last time we had a food scare of comparable magnitute to the China milk case?  Can you imagine the civil liability if the same case happened here?   

The more I read about this case, the more my stomach churns.  Read this:

Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Some Chinese dairy plants added the chemical to milk products so they would appear to have a higher protein level.

So you intentionally placed a toxic chemical in milk that you knew would be consumed by small children? 

When the scandal broke close to the olympics, the Chinese government banned the media from talking about it - it used silence as a weapon, just like Chavez and RCTV last year.

Remember Anderson v. Cryovac?  No?  How about the Woburn cancer cluster in the 60s and 70s & WR Grace?  Same case.  In the same way I felt bad for the families in Woburn, I feel bad for all those families in China who lost children or whose children were seriously injured because of the complete inattention of China’s government, and the criminal acts of the actual milk suppliers.  Those Chinese families don’t have the same tort system we do; will never be compensated in any real way; have to live with their frustration; have to watch their 2 year old toddler struggle with kidney stones; can’t protest in any meaningful way; and can’t even surf a website with information on families in a similiar situation. 

So yeah, I admit it - in times like this I remind myself how lucky we are to live in a free society.