Russia bans Chinese milk products

MOSCOW, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Russia's consumer rights agency says it banned thousands of products containing Chinese milk that regulators fear is tainted with the toxic additive melamine.

No cases of poisoning from contaminated products had been reported so far in Russia, RIA-Novosti said Friday. But an estimated 53,000 Chinese children were sickened and four babies died of kidney failure after ingesting the tainted foods, officials said

Banned foods in Russia include tea, chocolate and biscuits, Gennady Onishchenko, head of the consumer rights watchdog agency, told ITAR-Tass, Russia's official news service.

Onishchenko said inspectors found 1.7 tons of Chinese milk powder, presumably tainted with melamine, at Khabarovsk in Russia's Far East region.

Milk powder containing melamine, an industrial additive, also was found in the southwest Siberian city of Tomsk, a source told RIA Novosti.