1,253 babies in China have gotten sick from drinking powered milk that had been intentionally spiked with melamine (a chemical used to make plastic tableware), while authorities in Naples are warning people not to buy bread made by the Mafia, as it is baked with carcinogenic wood.
From the Times Online:
Two infants have already died from drinking the formula laced with melamine in a ploy by farmers to boost the protein content of the milk they sold to one of the country's biggest and best-known milk powder manufacturers. Police have arrested 19 people, including two brothers who ran a milk collection station.
From The Guardian:
Open 24 hours a day, the street sellers are drawing shoppers with cheap, crusty bread fresh from wood-burning ovens, the way Neapolitans like it. But police say Naples' new breed of bakers are slowly poisoning their customers by burning old varnished wood, nut shells covered in pesticides and even planks pulled from exhumed coffins. "Whoever buys this bread is eating dioxins and carcinogenic substances and putting their health at serious risk," said Francesco Borrelli, assessor for agriculture for the province of Naples.
