China gets tough after heavy metal poison cases
By Elaine Kurtenbach |
May 20, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S environmental protection ministry is cracking down on pollution caused by lead and other heavy metals following a spate of poisoning cases.
The new rules were announced after dozens of children living near a battery plant in southern China's Guangdong Province were reported sickened by lead poisoning.
Businesses and local officials will face criminal penalties for violations of the stricter rules published on the ministry's website yesterday.
In regions already affected by severe lead pollution, authorities were ordered to suspend environmental impact assessment and approvals, Xinhua news agency cited ministry spokesman Tao Detian as saying.
China is confronting a crisis of heavy metals poisoning after years of allowing manufacturers to disregard safety standards. The country has reported hundreds of pollution emergencies in recent years, many involving heavy metal contamination.
An explosion in the use of electric scooters and the rapid growth of car manufacturing have driven soaring demand for lead acid batteries, but the smelting, making and disposal of the lead and the batteries has been laxly controlled. Thousands of children were affected by lead poisoning in several provinces in 2009 and 2010 because they lived near metal smelters or battery factories.
The latest crackdown follows reports that 44 children and at least one adult living near a battery plant in Guangdong's Zijin County had excessive lead in their blood. The levels were as high as 600 micrograms per liter; the national limit is 100 micrograms.
This month, Sunnyway Battery Co's factory in Zijin was ordered to stop production due to suspicions it lacked adequate emissions controls and necessary permissions.
On Monday, the boss of a battery plant in eastern China's Zhejiang Province was detained after more than 300 people, including 99 children, were found to have been sickened by lead pollution.
Fifty-three people were hospitalized after tests found that 332 residents in Deqing, most workers at a factory making lead-acid batteries, or family members, had elevated levels of lead in their blood.
The new rules were announced after dozens of children living near a battery plant in southern China's Guangdong Province were reported sickened by lead poisoning.
Businesses and local officials will face criminal penalties for violations of the stricter rules published on the ministry's website yesterday.
In regions already affected by severe lead pollution, authorities were ordered to suspend environmental impact assessment and approvals, Xinhua news agency cited ministry spokesman Tao Detian as saying.
China is confronting a crisis of heavy metals poisoning after years of allowing manufacturers to disregard safety standards. The country has reported hundreds of pollution emergencies in recent years, many involving heavy metal contamination.
An explosion in the use of electric scooters and the rapid growth of car manufacturing have driven soaring demand for lead acid batteries, but the smelting, making and disposal of the lead and the batteries has been laxly controlled. Thousands of children were affected by lead poisoning in several provinces in 2009 and 2010 because they lived near metal smelters or battery factories.
The latest crackdown follows reports that 44 children and at least one adult living near a battery plant in Guangdong's Zijin County had excessive lead in their blood. The levels were as high as 600 micrograms per liter; the national limit is 100 micrograms.
This month, Sunnyway Battery Co's factory in Zijin was ordered to stop production due to suspicions it lacked adequate emissions controls and necessary permissions.
On Monday, the boss of a battery plant in eastern China's Zhejiang Province was detained after more than 300 people, including 99 children, were found to have been sickened by lead pollution.
Fifty-three people were hospitalized after tests found that 332 residents in Deqing, most workers at a factory making lead-acid batteries, or family members, had elevated levels of lead in their blood.
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