PARIS - CHILDREN in Hong Kong who consumed small doses of melamine in contaminated food from mainland China did not suffer any severe kidney problems, according to a study published on Friday.

Setting up large programmes to screen populations exposed to small quantities of melamine may be a waste of resources, its authors suggest.

Researchers led by Prof Hugh Lam, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, examined 3,170 children under 13 after the scare erupted.

Those children who had consumed milk products tainted with melamine for at least one month underwent renal ultrasonography, as well as tests on their urine.

Only 0.2 per cent of the children tested showed any symptoms, and none developed acute kidney failure or obstruction of the urinary tract, the two main conditions that arose from ingestion of melamine in China, the paper said.

Larger doses of melamine - a chemical compound used to make glue and plastics - added to milk products in China affected 50,000 children, causing at least 100 to become seriously ill and four to die, according to figures quoted by the study.

An independent tally by AFP based on government and press reports has recorded six deaths since the scandal broke in September.

Milk products in China were found to contain up to 2,563 milligrammes of melamine per kilo of food, according to the new study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The melamine had been added in order to pass protein tests for the milk.

In Hong Kong, though, the maximum level of contamination found was 38 times less, 68mg per kilo, the paper said.

'These data suggest that large-scale and urgent screening programmes may not be informative or cost-effective for populations who have been exposed to low-dose melamine,' say the authors, cautioning though that longer-term research into the impact was needed. -- AFP