Is U.S. baby formula safe?
Nobody knows for sure — but several experts tell WebMD they think U.S. baby formula is safe, despite containing trace amounts of melamine. Here’s the opinion of Marcel Casavant, MD, chief of clinical pharmacology/toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, medical director of The Central Ohio Poison Center, and director of the Central Ohio Lead Clinic. “We don’t really know for sure how much melamine is safe,” Casavant tells WebMD. “We do know how much is bad. It’s really the dose that makes something a poison or not. Concentrations of more than 250 parts per million cause big troubles for some babies. How low does the concentration have to be to cause no problems for any babies? That’s what we don’t know for certain.” Casavant notes that the FDA finds melamine concentrations up to 2.5 parts per million to be safe in products used to feed sick children in the hospital. Health Canada says a level of 1.0 part per million is safe in infant formula and 2.5 parts per mi
