What is melamine and why is it so dangerous?

Answer 1

Overall, melamine is not a very dangerous chemical - unless it ends up in food. The same thing is true of all sorts of household chemicals such as bathroom cleansers, toilet bowl liquids, oven cleaners, laundry detergent, shampoos, bug sprays, hair sprays, and all sorts of things that are not intended to be eaten.

Melamine is a chemical used to make resins and plastics. It is used in all sorts of plastic or resinous products found in most homes such as: tiles, countertops, toys, dishes, shelves, food storage containers, and product packaging. It has been in use for more than 50 years, and studies on melamine toxicity have shown that the chemical generally has low toxicity when it is used in the manufacture of products containing plastic because the chemical doesn't leak out of these products.

Melamine has been in the news lately because it has been found in wheat gluten imported from China, and pet foods containing contaminated wheat gluten have apparently killed a number of pets in the USA. Melamine does not belong in food, and its not surprising that it has toxic effects when eaten. The FDA is not certain exactly why the pets died from the contaminated wheat gluten, but they assume that the deaths are caused in some way by the melamine contamination. The FDA has banned imports of certain foods from China due to potential contamination by melamine and other contaminants.

The toxic effects of melamine are somewhat of a mystery because only a small percentage of animals exposed to contaminated gluten have exhibited health problems. Scientists speculate that melamine is either broken down by some individuals (but not all) into by-products that are toxic, or maybe melamine creates some other toxic compound when the break-down products react with some other unknown chemical that is not present unless the animals have eaten some other type of food at the same time.

Answer 2

Melamine is an organic base with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with the IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is only slightly soluble in water.

Melamine is a trimer of cyanamide. Like cyanamide, it is 66% nitrogen (by mass) and provides fire retardant properties to resin formulas by releasing nitrogen when burned or charred. Dicyandiamide (or cyanoguanidine), the dimer of cyanamide, is also used as a fire retardant.

Melamine is a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. It is formed in the body of mammals who have ingested cyromazine.[2] It was also reported that cyromazine is converted to melamine in plants.[

Acute toxicity
Melamine is reported to have an oral LD50 of >3000 mg/kg based on rat data, which makes it only minimally toxic (table salt has a similar LD50 value). It is also an irritant when inhaled or in contact with the skin or eyes. The reported dermal LD50 is >1000mg/kg for rabbits.[14] In a 1945 study, large doses of melamine were given orally to rats, rabbits and dogs with "no significant toxic effects" observed. [15]

There does not seem to be any reported human case of acute intoxication directly caused by melamine.

A study by USSR researchers in the 1980s suggested melamine cyanurate (a salt formed between melamine and cyanuric acid, commonly used as a fire retardant[16]) could be more toxic than either melamine or cyanuric acid alone.[17] For rats and mice, the reported LD50 for melamine cyanurate was 4.1g/kg (given inside the stomach) and 3.5g/kg (via inhalation), compared to 6.0 and 4.3 g/kg for melamine and 7.7 and 3.4 g/kg for cyanuric acid, respectively.


Chronic toxicity
Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.[18][14][19][20][21]

A study in 1953 reported that dogs fed 3% melamine for a year had the following changes in their urine: (1) reduced specific gravity, (2) increased output, (3) melamine crystalluria, and (4) protein and occult blood.[22]


2007 pet food recalls
Further information: 2007 pet food recalls
In 2007 a pet food recall was initiated by Menu Foods and other pet food manufacturers who had found their products had been contaminated and caused serious illnesses or deaths in some of the animals that had eaten them.[23][24][25] On 30 March 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration reported finding white granular melamine in the pet food, in samples of white granular wheat gluten imported from a single source in China, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology [26] as well as in crystalline form in the kidneys and in urine of affected animals.[27] Further vegetable protein imported from China was later implicated. See 2007 pet food recalls.

The practice of adding "melamine scrap" to animal feed is reported to be widespread in China in order to give the appearance of increased protein content in animal feed.[28] Melamine has also been purposely added as a binder to fish and livestock feed manufactured in the United States and traced to suppliers in Ohio and Colorado.[29] The presence of melamine has not been conclusively linked to the deaths of animals, as this chemical was previously thought to be non-toxic at low doses.

Answer 3

unless you are eating your dishes, i think you are fine.