Chemicals behind global kidney failure outbreaks found in US pregnant women

Melamine – a chemical found in certain types of plastic dishware that the World Health Organization recently classified as “possibly carcinogenic” – made global news for causing outbreaks of kidney failure and deaths in pets in 2004 (Korea) and 2007 (U.S.) and later in children in 2008 (China). This was because manufacturers had added melamine to fake the protein content of pet food and baby formula. While this generated attention to regulate melamine in food, the question is whether people are still being exposed to melamine and similar chemicals like cyanuric acid.