For poisoning milk.
Melamine is used in making many industrial products. It can be found in countertops, fabrics, glue, Formica, cleaning products, and pesticides. It is, however, quite dangerous and even deadly if ingested. Not exactly something you would want to pour into your morning coffee.
Tian Wenhua was chairwoman and general manager of the Sanlu Group, one of China’s largest dairy companies. She is responsible for adding melamine to the company’s milk in order to spike the protein levels for quality control testing. As a result of Wenhua’s decision, at least six infants would die and three hundred thousand others would suffer from kidney stones and other urinary problems. She is now serving a life sentence in jail for her role in the tainted-milk scandal.
Hundreds of edible products were affected around the world, including powdered baby milk, cookies, candy, chocolate, ice cream, and more.
FYI—the amount of pesticide that should be in your 2 percent is 0 percent! Tian’s recklessness and blatant disregard for human health and well-being is difficult to fathom. What could have driven the milky judgments that lead her to believe this was acceptable? It’s one thing to profit from stealing, but quite another to profit from poisoning people.
You can’t help but wonder what drinks she avoids in the slammer—we’ll just assume she’s lactose-intolerant.