Cancer kills 1 in 12 people in small village
Print Edition
One out of 12 people in Shangba Village in southern Guangdong Province reportedly died of cancer within the past 18 years with pollution being blamed for the unnaturally high number of deaths, Southern Rural News reported.
Between 1987 and 2005, 250 villagers had died of various cancers. The cancer rate during those 18 years was nearly 90 times the national average, according to the newspaper report.
Authorities investigated and found there was a connection to water and soil pollution.
Many villagers put the blame on a mining area on the upper reaches of a river passing the village. Metals known to increase the risk of cancer such as cadmium and arsenic contaminated the river, the report said. Other villages had also been affected.
In Tongxi Village, many farmers told the newspaper they had to give up planting rice and peanuts due to lack of clean water.
“We wouldn’t eat locally grown rice because we feared for our health,” villager Wen Guoli was cited as saying.
Children have also suffered due to the pollution.
In 2012, 160 children from four villages in the area were found with high levels of lead in their blood, added the report.
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