Students ‘falling ill’ after relocation
Print Edition
AN investigation has been launched following a report that hundreds of children at a school near a former industrial site in east China’s Jiangsu Province have developed health problems, including cancer, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
According to a CCTV report aired on Sunday, 493 students at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School were found to have conditions ranging from chronic coughs, headaches and blood abnormalities to lymphoma and leukemia.
The televison report quoted parents as saying that their children had been falling ill after the school moved last September to a site in Changzhou’s Xinbei District close to land formerly occupied by three chemical plants — Jiangsu Changlong Chemicals Co, Jiangsu Huada Chemical Group and Changzhou Changyu Chemical Co.
CCTV said the parents had suspected for months that their children’s ailments were linked to the move.
Xinhua quoted city authorities as saying a soil restoration project at the site was underway at the time of the complaints.
“An environmental-expert panel concluded in February that the program had achieved the expected results and that the air quality meets national standards,” it said.
In an article on its website yesterday, Beijing Youth Daily said blood samples from students showed abnormal readings and many were suffering from dermatitis.
The CCTV report said previous assessments had found extremely high levels of contamination in the soil and water at the former industrial site.
Surveys commissioned by concerned parents also found that water, soil and air on the school campus was contaminated, it said.
According to a statement on the Changzhou government’s website, students and teachers had been complaining about unusual smells from the direction of the former industrial site since last December.
Currently, five of the school’s 2,451 students were on leave, including four citing illness, and five others were applying to transfer to other schools, the city government said. Three of the school’s 210 teachers are on medical leave, it added.
An unnamed official with the government told thepaper.cn that there were no leukemia cases among students and only one student with lymph cancer, which had been diagnosed before the relocation.
CCTV said that the air and underground water at the school contained chlorobenzene, carbon tetrachloride and trichloromethane above the national standard.
The pollutants matched those found at the industrial site.
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said an investigation team was being sent to Changzhou, with its findings published as soon as possible.
The Ministry of Education has also sent an inspection team.
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