Petah Tikva, Israel- The Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday convicted former Remedia top technologist Frederick Black of negligent homicide, acquitted former CEO Gideon Landsberger of negligent homicide, while convicting him of a minor crime and fully acquitted former owner Moshe Miller in the 2003 Remedia baby formula affair.
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The three officials were all accused of negligent homicide and committing acts likely to cause disease as well as other crimes.
The partial conviction and partial acquittals are at best a mixed result for the families of the three babies who died and the around 20 babies who suffered serious harm caused by the fact that the Remedia formula did not include Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), even though the cans stated that they did.
Remedia received the formula from a German-based company called Humana Milchunion, which makes baby food.
In mostly acquitting Landsberger and fully acquitting Miller, the court placed most of the responsibility on Humana.
The court ruled that Remedia was not in on the decision to omit Vitamin B1, and only convicted Black of negligent homicide because he was the top science professional who, according to the court, was negligent in not uncovering the issue.
Vitamin B1 is used by the body to break down sugars, releasing energy into the cell.
Vitamin B1 deficiency reduces the amount of energy available and can harm bodily systems, particularly the central nervous system.
Vitamin B1 also prevents concentrations of lactic acid. Without it, too much acid accumulates in the body, which affects the baby’s sense of balance.
Damage to the central nervous system creates neuropathological symptoms including sleepiness, slowness, depression, lack of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
They got off the hook pretty easy as opposed to the melamine scandal in China a few years ago which caused the death of 6 infants due to kidney failure, and the people responsible, namely the greedy milk collectors, were executed