Top team in cancer scare probe
By Yang Jian |
August 19, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A TEAM from China's top environment agency is investigating a chemical company's dumping of carcinogenic industrial chemicals into a reservoir that feeds one of the country's largest rivers.
Two workers are said to have dumped the chemicals along roads in a village in southwest China's Yunnan Province causing serious water contamination and affecting one of the country's major rivers.
The workers had signed contracts with the Luliang Chemical Industry Co Ltd to handle more than 5,000 tons of chromium-contaminated waste but simply dumped it along roads and hills near the Chachong Reservoir in Qujing two months ago, Xinhua news agency quoted the Qujing City government as saying.
Rainfall later washed the chemicals into the reservoir and contaminated the water and causing the deaths of at least 77 cattle, the government said.
Investigators from the Ministry of Environmental Protection arrived at Qujing yesterday. They will investigate the pollution in the Chachong Reservoir in the town of Yuezhen and the Nanpan River which feeds into the Pearl River, a major river that flows through southern China.
The chemical company suspended production last Sunday after the water contamination scandal.
At least 3,000 people live near the company's dump sites in Xinglong Village, which is now more widely known as "Cancer Village."
At least 14 local villagers have been diagnosed with cancer since 2002 and many suspect their diseases were due to contaminated drinking water.
Two workers are said to have dumped the chemicals along roads in a village in southwest China's Yunnan Province causing serious water contamination and affecting one of the country's major rivers.
The workers had signed contracts with the Luliang Chemical Industry Co Ltd to handle more than 5,000 tons of chromium-contaminated waste but simply dumped it along roads and hills near the Chachong Reservoir in Qujing two months ago, Xinhua news agency quoted the Qujing City government as saying.
Rainfall later washed the chemicals into the reservoir and contaminated the water and causing the deaths of at least 77 cattle, the government said.
Investigators from the Ministry of Environmental Protection arrived at Qujing yesterday. They will investigate the pollution in the Chachong Reservoir in the town of Yuezhen and the Nanpan River which feeds into the Pearl River, a major river that flows through southern China.
The chemical company suspended production last Sunday after the water contamination scandal.
At least 3,000 people live near the company's dump sites in Xinglong Village, which is now more widely known as "Cancer Village."
At least 14 local villagers have been diagnosed with cancer since 2002 and many suspect their diseases were due to contaminated drinking water.
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