China says 1,300 sick in new lead poisoning case

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China says 1,300 sick in new lead poisoning case


BEIJING (AP) - More than 1,300 children have been sickened by lead poisoning in central China, the second such case involving a large number of children this month, state media said Thursday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 1,354 children - or nearly 70 percent of the children tested - who lived near a manganese processing plant in Wenping township in Hunan province were found to have excessive lead in their blood.

Local authorities shut down the Hunan smelter last week and detained two of its executives on suspicion of "causing severe environment pollution," Xinhua said. General manager Liu Zhongwu was still at large, it said.

A staffer from the Wenping township government office who declined to give his name said the numbers are expected to rise as more children are tested. Calls to local health offices rang unanswered Thursday.

It is the latest case showing serious environmental problems caused by China's economic growth. For decades, many Chinese companies dumped poisons into rivers and the ground rather than disposing them safely, counting on the acquiescence of local governments unwilling to damage their economic lifelines.

Earlier this week in a separate case, villagers in northern Shaanxi province clashed with police and government officials as they protested the operations of the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in the town of Changqing.

At least 615 out of 731 children in two villages near that smelter tested positive for lead poisoning, which can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and memory loss.

Children from six other villagers there are now being tested.

In the Hunan case, the children are from four villages near the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Wenping, Xinhua said. It said the children are being tested again in the provincial capital, Changsha, to see how serious their cases are.

As of Thursday, Changsha health authorities had results for 83 cases: 17 were found to have "moderate poisoning" with between 250 and 499 milligrams of lead per liter of blood, 28 as "slight poisoning" with 200 to 249 mg., and 38 others with 100 to 199 mg., Xinhua said.

It quoted Huang Wenbin, deputy environment chief in Wugang, as saying the plant opened in May 2008 without the approval of the local environmental protection bureau. It said a primary school, a middle school and a kindergarten were within 500 yards (meters) of the plant.

Fears of lead poisoning began to spread among villagers in early July when many children became susceptible to colds and suffered fevers and other ailments, Xinhua said.


http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/20/apworld/20090820203810&sec=apworld

 

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Re: China says 1,300 sick in new lead poisoning case

China Henan province shuts up to 240,000 T lead capacity 24 Aug 2009 07:14:08 GMT
Source: Reuters


HONG KONG, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Henan, China's top refined lead producing province, has shut down up to 240,000 tonnes of annual lead smelting capacity in recent days after lead poisoning was reported to have affected hundreds of children in Shaanxi province, smelter officials said on Monday.

"Three plants were shut on Sunday, with a monthly output 15,000-20,000 tonnes," a senior executive at a large lead smelter in Henan told Reuters.

A sales manager at a medium-size lead smelter in Henan said the provincial government had asked lead smelters to shut down capacity that did not meet national environmental standards.

"About a third of the province's lead smelting capacity could be closed eventually," he said. (Reporting by Polly Yam; Editing by Chris Lewis)


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK365634.htm

 

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Re: China says 1,300 sick in new lead poisoning case

Sep 2, 11:23 AM EDT


China detains 15 parents for lead poison unrest

By GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press Writer


BEIJING (AP) -- Police in central China detained 15 parents for a violent protest over factory pollution that left hundreds of local children with lead poisoning, and accused them of links to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, villagers said Wednesday.

Villagers mocked the accusation, saying authorities were using the charge to take revenge against parents involved in the Aug. 8 unrest in Hunan province's Wenping township, that broke out after more than 1,300 children were poisoned by emissions from a manganese processing plant. Falun Gong practitioners are relentlessly persecuted by Chinese authorities.

Anger is growing in China over public safety scandals in which children have been the main victims. The ruling Communist Party is worried mass protests will threaten the country's social stability and challenge its grip on power.

The Wugang city public security bureau, which oversees Wenping, issued a notice Tuesday saying "cult members with ulterior motives" led a few villagers to block roads, attack government offices and damage public property, 40-year-old resident Dai Zuoyi said.

Police said 15 people were being held and urged the "Falun Gong practitioners to turn themselves in as soon as possible," said Dai, who read the announcement to The Associated Press over the phone.

"When I saw this notice, I laughed till my stomach hurt," Dai said. "There have never been any Falun Gong followers in Wenping. This is clearly a reprisal attack against villagers."

A notice posted on the Web site of the Wugang city government last week said Chinese and foreign Falun Gong members were spreading false rumors and "instigating the public to cause trouble" in response to the lead poisoning incident. It did not mention detentions.

Dai said his brother-in-law Li Changye was among the parents detained this week. Li, 40, was among hundreds of residents who blocked roads leading to the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant, Dai said.

Both Dai's and Li's sons, aged 5 months and 6 years, have excessive levels of lead in their blood, Dai said. Lead poisoning can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and memory loss.

The Wugang government's spokesman, who would give only his surname, Xia, denied that any Wenping residents had been detained.

"We have not taken any measures against the parents. But if anybody has broken the law, their cases will be investigated by the police," Xia said by phone.

He said city government officials have recently received phone calls from out of town by people who personally attacked the officials. Based on "previous experience," the police think they might be Falun Gong members, Xia said, without going into details.

The Wenping incident was one of three cases of lead poisoning involving large numbers of children last month. The first case involved more than 600 children living near a lead smelter in northwestern Shaanxi province, while the latest one occurred in Yunnan in the southwest, with about 200 children sickened.

A Falun Gong spokeswoman condemned the government actions, saying that instead of addressing the source of grievances, authorities are "spinning them in an effort to further vilify" practitioners.

"Since the Chinese regime first launched its campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, they have often taken incidents of unrest or violence in the country, and through state-run media, framed them on Falun Gong," said Gail Rachlin, a New York-based spokeswoman for Falun Dafa Information Center.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-09-02-11-23-09

 

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Re: China says 1,300 sick in new lead poisoning case

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g7eMNoW93eSr7tzX7GDJTboHuS_g

Beijing vows to crack down as lead poisons 121 children

(AFP) ? 3 hours ago

BEIJING ? China vowed Sunday to crack down on heavy metal polluters after officials confirmed a new major lead poisoning outbreak had left 121 children with excessive levels of the metal in their blood.

Zhang Lijun, vice minister for environmental protection, told a news conference in Beijing that the government would identify and shut down polluters responsible for such outbreaks across the country.

"Before the end of the year, nine ministries and State Council commissions will launch a crackdown on illegal polluters to protect people's health," Zhang told a new conference.

"The government is going to launch special inspections of enterprises responsible for heavy metals emissions," Zhang said.

Officials in Shanghang county in southeast Fujian province confirmed 121 children were found to be suffering from lead poisoning between September 15 and 20, the official Xinhua news agency reported Sunday.

Parents blamed the pollution on emissions from a local battery factory.

Hundreds of people protested in mid-September in front of the Shanghang county government offices and blocked a local highway for hours after an initial four children were found to have excessive lead in their blood.

The situation in Shanghang follows two similar incidents in August -- in northern Shaanxi and in central Hunan province -- which saw a total of more than 2,100 children test positive for high lead levels.

Pollution-related health scares are common in China, where an emphasis on economic growth over the past three decades has lead to widespread disregard for environmental protection.

 

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Re: China says 1,300 sick in new lead poisoning case

China to relocate 15,000 from lead-poisoned area

AFP October 15, 2009



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Chinese children from Hengjiang, who are suffering from lead poisoning, pose for a photograph at the Hunan Preventian and Treatment Institute in Changsha. Chinese authorities plan to move 15,000 residents away from smelting plants in the area after nearly 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning.

Photograph by: Frederic J. Brown, AFP/Getty Images




BEIJING - Authorities in central China plan to move 15,000 residents away from smelting plants in the area after nearly 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, state media said on Friday.


Zhao Suping, mayor of Jiyuan city in Henan province, said the mass relocation would cost one billion yuan (146 million dollars), the official Xinhua news agency reported.


Zhao said 70 percent of the cost would be borne by the local government and the smelters responsible for the lead poisoning, while local residents would foot the rest of the bill, according to Xinhua.


State press reported Tuesday that health authorities in Jiyuan found that 968 children had excessive levels of lead in their blood after tests on more than 2,700 kids under the age of 14.


The scandal was just the latest in a string of recent lead poisoning incidents around China that have exposed the dark side of the country's industrial boom of recent decades.


Excessive levels of lead are considered hazardous, particularly to children, who can experience stunted growth and even mental retardation.

Xinhua called Jiyuan the country's biggest lead-smelting centre.


The report said the relocation site for the affected residents was still being determined.


The Jiyuan government suspended production at 32 of the 35 electrolytic lead plants in the area, it added.


http://www.vancouversun.com/health/China+relocate+from+lead+poisoned+area/2111668/story.html