Mining company blamed for teeth woes
By Zhang Xuanchen |
February 24, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PARENTS of children whose teeth became strangely discolored and fell out are blaming a mining company for discharging toxic water and contaminating farmland in southwest China.
The front teeth of several children under five in a village of Heqing County, Yunnan Province, turned desert tan and black before eventually falling out, City Times reported yesterday.
They blamed bauxite processor Kexin Mining Co for draining sewage containing excessive amounts of fluoride in the village's farmland. Excessive ingestion of fluoride can cause fluorosis, a condition that includes mottling of the teeth.
Villagers said silkworm raisers had taken mulberry leaves for tests after a large number of the insects died in 2009. An inspection center under the Ministry of Agriculture found the fluoride level was 52.6 mg/kg. The national standard is 30 mg/kg.
But the county government didn't recognize the result and carried out new tests when villagers tried to use the results to seek redress. These tests showed the level of heavy metals in soil and plants met national standards.
A spokesman for Kexin Mining Co told the newspaper the company has complied with laws for sewage disposal and its raw materials don't contain heavy metals.
Zhu Xueping, deputy director of Heqing County's environment protection bureau, said authorities didn't find signs of heavy metal contamination in an environmental assessment of Kexin.
The front teeth of several children under five in a village of Heqing County, Yunnan Province, turned desert tan and black before eventually falling out, City Times reported yesterday.
They blamed bauxite processor Kexin Mining Co for draining sewage containing excessive amounts of fluoride in the village's farmland. Excessive ingestion of fluoride can cause fluorosis, a condition that includes mottling of the teeth.
Villagers said silkworm raisers had taken mulberry leaves for tests after a large number of the insects died in 2009. An inspection center under the Ministry of Agriculture found the fluoride level was 52.6 mg/kg. The national standard is 30 mg/kg.
But the county government didn't recognize the result and carried out new tests when villagers tried to use the results to seek redress. These tests showed the level of heavy metals in soil and plants met national standards.
A spokesman for Kexin Mining Co told the newspaper the company has complied with laws for sewage disposal and its raw materials don't contain heavy metals.
Zhu Xueping, deputy director of Heqing County's environment protection bureau, said authorities didn't find signs of heavy metal contamination in an environmental assessment of Kexin.
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