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Four sacked in lead-poison probe

FOUR officials in central China's Hunan Province were sacked after the environmental protection ministry started investigating a lead poisoning case where the number of child victims rose to 45.

A special investigative team has been sent to Jiahe County and Guiyang Couty in Chenzhou City. The team will start a three-month crackdown on polluting industries in Chenzhou with the help of local officials, The Beijing News reported today.

Township leaders Wang Guangjin and Li Hongyang, and two electrical authority officials Zhang Renzhu and Li Yifu were sacked for conniving with polluting factories in the city.

Altogether 59 factories have been shut down and 54 more were ordered to stop production by March 21 since authorities admitted the lead-poisoning scandal last Wednesday.

Now 45 children under the age of 14, most of them from Haotang Town in Guiyang County, have showed symptoms of lead poisoning, according to the Chenzhou public health bureau.

Thirty-three children have been hospitalized and two are seriously ill, said Li Yaogang, an official with Chenzhou heath bureau.

The cases emerged about 10 months after 254 children were found with excessive levels of lead in their blood in Jiahe County of Chenzhou in July last year.

Excessive amounts of lead in the body can harm the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and anemia. In severe cases, it can lead to convulsions, coma and even death.



 

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