What is Melanine & why was it added to milk??

Melamine is Melamine is anorganic base and a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% nitrogen by mass and, if mixed with resins, has fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred, and has several other industrial uses

Melanine is also a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide.

Melamine is used to combine with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a very durablethermosetting plastic, and melamine foam, a polymeric cleaning product. The end products include countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, glues, housewares and flame retardants. Melamine is one of the major components in Pigment Yellow 150, a colorant in inks and plastics.

Melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content.

Melamine may have been added to fool government quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk's volume, since melamine will cause a false increase in the measurement of protein by increasing the nitrogen levels in the milk. Officials estimate that about 20 percent of the dairy companies tested in China sell products tainted with melamine.

TOXICITY-

Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damages, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladdercancer.

A study in 1953 reported that dogs fed 3% melamine for a year had the following changes in their urine: (1) reduced specific gravety, (2) increased output, (3) melamine crystalluria, and (4) protein and Occult blood.

Melamine is illegally mixed with milk supplies by farmers and middlemen because it artificially boosts protein readings and can disguise substandard and watered down milk.