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Over 2000 Feared To Have Lead Poisoning In China
Beijing (AFP) Sep 06, 2006 More than 2,000 villagers in northwest China are feared to have lead poisoning caused by a polluting smelting plant, officials and state media said Wednesday. More than 300 children were among those affected, all residents of Hui county in destitute Gansu province, the China News Service (CNS) reported. Some of them had lead in their blood several times higher than safe levels, according to the report. So far there was no definitive explanation for the cause of the sudden wave of poisoning but a general consensus blamed a local smelting factory, the Huashan Daily newspaper reported earlier. Late last month the Hui county government ordered the factory to close and move to a safer location, according to the paper. CNS described the plant as a virtual ecological time bomb, pumping out polluted waste water and emitting dark fumes and thick clouds of dust. County officials told AFP many villagers had gone to Xian city in neighboring Shaanxi province to have their blood tested, trusting the more modern facilities there. "After the news broke about 1,000 people had their blood lead levels tested," an official said. "We haven't got complete statistics yet so we still can't say how many have been poisoned." Lead poisoning can have a variety of adverse effects, from nausea and insomnia to comas and impaired mental development in children. China's economic development offers the people of many regions a stark choice between a clean environment and rapid growth. China's cities have some of the worst air pollution in the world, while its polluted waterways are already exacerbating existing water shortages in many parts of the nation.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up
Analysis: No Room For Shangri-La In China
Kangding, China (UPI) Sep 07, 2006What one generally regards as modern China and its pollution-belching factories dotting the landscape hardly seems to have room for the nostalgic notion of a Shangri-la. Do not forget the ancient and the future reside side-by-side in China. In Beijing and eastern China in general it is not uncommon to go for days without seeing the sun in many urban areas. |
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