103 kids in serious lead poisoning
Source: Agencies |
June 13, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Lead pollution from family-run workshops in east China's Zhejiang Province seriously poisoned 103 children and affected hundreds of other residents, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
The pollution from tinfoil-making workshops in Yangxunqiao town in Zhejiang left the children, aged 14 or younger, with 250 micrograms or more of lead for every liter of blood. Another 26 adults were found to have "severe lead poisoning, or with more than 600 micrograms of lead per liter of blood," Xinhua said.
"Workers and their family members, including children, are constantly exposed to lead materials in the family-run workshops," said the news agency, adding that a dozen of the children were receiving hospital treatment. Nearly 500 other residents in the township were found to have "moderate" lead poisoning, with 400 to 600 micrograms of lead per liter of blood.
The case is the latest in a series that have struck many towns and villages across China, where residents often live within meters of laxly regulated factories and workshops competing to produce cheaply.
That industrial growth has run up against residents increasingly worried about their health.
Lead poisoning can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and kidneys, and is especially harmful for children.
Urgent measures
China's environment ministry has called for urgent measures to tackle heavy metal poisoning.
"The prevention of heavy metal pollution concerns the health of the people, especially children's health, and concerns social harmony and stability," the Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian said in May.
Dozens of people living near a battery factory in Zhejiang were found to have dangerously high levels of lead poisoning in March.
In 2009, protesters broke into one smelting plant they blamed for the lead poisoning of more than 600 children, and smashed trucks and tore down fences before police stopped them.
Faced with rising public concern, the government has said it will crack down on lead pollution, especially in Zhejiang Province, which is home to many small manufacturers of batteries and other products that use the metal.
About three-quarters of lead-acid battery manufacturing plants in China could be phased out in the next two to three years after the central government launched a crackdown, an industry body said last month.
In Yangxunqiao, site of the latest pollution, 25 workshops have suspended production.
The township has nearly 200 tinfoil-making workshops employing more than 2,500 people, Xinhua said.
The pollution from tinfoil-making workshops in Yangxunqiao town in Zhejiang left the children, aged 14 or younger, with 250 micrograms or more of lead for every liter of blood. Another 26 adults were found to have "severe lead poisoning, or with more than 600 micrograms of lead per liter of blood," Xinhua said.
"Workers and their family members, including children, are constantly exposed to lead materials in the family-run workshops," said the news agency, adding that a dozen of the children were receiving hospital treatment. Nearly 500 other residents in the township were found to have "moderate" lead poisoning, with 400 to 600 micrograms of lead per liter of blood.
The case is the latest in a series that have struck many towns and villages across China, where residents often live within meters of laxly regulated factories and workshops competing to produce cheaply.
That industrial growth has run up against residents increasingly worried about their health.
Lead poisoning can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and kidneys, and is especially harmful for children.
Urgent measures
China's environment ministry has called for urgent measures to tackle heavy metal poisoning.
"The prevention of heavy metal pollution concerns the health of the people, especially children's health, and concerns social harmony and stability," the Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian said in May.
Dozens of people living near a battery factory in Zhejiang were found to have dangerously high levels of lead poisoning in March.
In 2009, protesters broke into one smelting plant they blamed for the lead poisoning of more than 600 children, and smashed trucks and tore down fences before police stopped them.
Faced with rising public concern, the government has said it will crack down on lead pollution, especially in Zhejiang Province, which is home to many small manufacturers of batteries and other products that use the metal.
About three-quarters of lead-acid battery manufacturing plants in China could be phased out in the next two to three years after the central government launched a crackdown, an industry body said last month.
In Yangxunqiao, site of the latest pollution, 25 workshops have suspended production.
The township has nearly 200 tinfoil-making workshops employing more than 2,500 people, Xinhua said.
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