The pet food contamination story is crystallizing. Crystals being formed in the kidneys and urinary tracts of afflicted animals are apparently the byproduct of chemical reactions between two chemicals: melamine and cyanuric acid. The crystals are extremely insoluble, and so collect in the kidneys:
Analysis of the crystals in the kidneys of affected animals have revealed that they are approximately 70 percent cyanuric acid and 30 percent melamine, and are extremely insoluble. Furthermore, tests mixing melamine and cyanuric acid in samples of cat urine resulted in almost immediate formation of crystals that were identical to crystals found in the kidneys of affected animals. Two other melamine- related substances-ammelide and ammeline-may also play roles and are under investigation.
We are becoming aware of how the melamine is getting into the glutens and proteins powders supplied to pet food manufacturers. Melamine is being cut into these products to cheat on the nitrogen test that gages how much protein there is. This practice is apparently common place in China.
For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.
"Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. "I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation."
How much melamine has been made it into human food is unknown at this point. There have been reports of it in the meat supply through pigs and chickens fed contaminated feed. But how is the cyanuric acid getting into bodies to create the crystals?
In the swimming pool industry, cyanuric acid is used to stabilize chlorine, because it prevents evaporation. Melamine is used as a reagent to measure cyanuric acid levels. Sprinkled into pool water, it combines with the cyanuric acid, making the water look cloudy. The level of cloudiness indicates the concentration of cyanuric acid. The only way to reduce levels of cyanuric acid is to drain out some of the water and add fresh.
What seems to be happening in the pets who have become ill and died, is that the melamine and cyanuric acid are combining in their bodies and making hard insoluble crystals, like the precipitates in swimming pools. These crystals clog the filters in the kidneys and in the urinary tubes. An article in Live science says:
If this is true, and if, as The New York Times recently reported, melamine has been added to Chinese animal feed for years, why are animals just now getting sick?
According to Perry Martos, a chemist at the University of Guelph in Ontario, it’s because more than melamine is involved now. His lab analyzed the urine and kidneys of affected pets and identified other compounds that shouldn’t have been there—like cyanuric acid, a chemical that is commonly added to swimming pools to keep chlorine from breaking down.
Martos found that melamine and cyanuric acid react with one other instantly in some conditions, forming a white solid called a "super-molecular aggregate." Although the two compounds wouldn’t react in an animal’s stomach, which is too acidic, they begin to react after leaving the stomach and entering the urinary tract, and this essentially creates stones large enough to block urinary tubes "like a truck on the 401, sideways," Martos said.
In China, Trichloroisocyanuric Acid is advertised as a treatment for swimming pools and drinking water. This compound is basically chlorine stabilized with cyanuric acid. It was patented by Monsanto in 1952. From the OSHA information sheet:
1.3 Uses
Trichloroisocyanuric acid and dichloroisocyanuric acid are used as a source of available chlorine in "dry type" bleaches, scouring powders, dishwashing compounds, and sanitizing compounds.
1.4 Physical and Chemical Properties
The physical and chemical properties of trichloro and dichloro isocyanuric acids are:
1.4.1 Trichloroisocyanuric acid - C3Cl3N3O3; mole. wt. 232.42. C 15-50%, Cl 45.77%, N 18.08%, 0 20.65%. Prepared by chlorinating cyanuric acid in 5% NaOH solution: Hands, Whitt., Soc. Chem. Ind. 67,66 (1948); Hardy U.S. pat. 2,607,738 (1952 to Monsanto). Purification by dissolving in conc. H2SO4 and diluting with ice water: Lorenz, U.S. pat. 2,828,308 (1958 to Purex Corp.). May be stored in the dry state for at least a year. Releases hypochlorous acid on contact with water. Available chlorine about 90%. pH of aqueous soln. about 4.4. Solubility in water at 25oC about 0.2%. Soluble in chlorinated and highly polar solvents.
I found a reference to this chemical at the website for NSF.org, an independent not for profit organization who certifies products and writes standards to protect consumers. The chemical is listed for treatment of drinking water!. Only one company was listed from my search as a supplier:
OCCIDENTAL CHEMICAL CORPORATION
OXY TOWER
5005 LBJ FREEWAY
DALLAS, TX 75244-6119
972-404-3918
The Occidental Chemical Corporation sells drinking water treatment "certified" (by NSF) granules. This PDF took a little searching on their website to find, but cyanuric acid is listed as part of the composition of their water purification product.
According to the PDF, these were approved by the EPA in July of 2001.
I wonder if the melamine which has been cut into gluten and protein products from China, is reacting with cyanuric acid in our drinking water, in municipalities that are adding it?
Another possible source of cyanuric acid in our environment is Atrazine. Atrazine is a broad leaf and grass herbicide that is broken down by soil microbes into cyanuric acid. Monsanto makes several products that contain atrazine. As we drench our environment in chemicals of which only a fraction of their reactive possibilities have been explored prior to approval for safe usage, we make of our bodies, and those of animals, living test tubes, sometimes ending up no longer living.
Here is a link to an article on this subject from a few days ago.
And here is another posted yesterday.
Cross posted at Choice Changes