China Dairy Industry Association (CDIA) on Thursday told Xinhua more information on setting up a medical compensation fund for victim babies in the tainted milk powder scandal.
"The scandal caused great harm to infants and the society, so firms involved in the scandal feel very regretful for this. To be responsible for their wrongdoing and rebuild the dairy industry's reputation, these companies offer to shoulder social responsibilities," said the association.
Sanlu, the dairy producer at the center of the tainted milk powder scandal, and other 21 firms blamed in the scandal had decided to set up a compensation fund for the victim infants.
"The money from these companies for this fund has been in place now. The fund will cover the charge on acute disease medical treatment and the one-time cash payment for victims," said the Beijing-based association.
But no specific amount of the fund or compensation for each victim baby was revealed.
"The fund is big enough to cover all the medical care charge for the victim infants and the compensation work is now underway," according to the association.
"After the acute disease medical treatment, if those infants develop related diseases before they are 18 years old, they can also get full reimbursement for their medical expenses from the fund," the CDIA added.
The fund will be entrusted to China Life Insurance Co., Ltd., the country's leading life insurer, to manage. To make it easier for the victim families to get compensation, they can get the medical charge reimbursement through China Life's outlets nationwide.
China's tainted dairy scandal was exposed in September after babies who had milk powder produced by the northern Hebei Province-based Sanlu Group developed kidney stones.
Other leading dairy firms were also involved. The contamination killed six babies and more than 290,000 infants suffered from urinary problems such as kidney stones.
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)