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Poison in the mindset

By Hu Yongqi and Li Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-08 09:55

Xiao Jinmei is only 10 months old but already her parents can tell she is not developing at the expected rate. Her hair is still thin and she is a lot smaller than most children her age.

A 7-year-old girl from Hengjiang village in Wugang, Hunan province, holds the results that show she has 227 mcg/l in her system.[Chen Siping]

On July 28, they noticed she struggled to keep down her milk and immediately rushed her to hospital where she was diagnosed with lead poisoning.

She was just one of around 2,000 children found to have excessive levels of lead - more than 100 micrograms per liter of blood (mcg/l) - in their system during a recent series of scandals blamed on pollution from smelting plants.

Xiao's parents have lived beside Jinglian Manganese factory near the city of Wugang, Hunan province, since it opened last year.

"It has been a horrible experience for her and us," said father Xiao Aijun, 31, who said his daughter is now receiving treatment in Changsha, the provincial capital. "The authorities have not done their duty. They must do more to protect our health and safety."

Youngsters in Wugang were the first to be found suffering lead poisoning on July 31. Similar cases were then exposed on Aug 2 in towns and villages in Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province, and the city of Kunming, Yunnan province.

Around 160 children have received medical treatment at the local hospital in Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province, after they were found to have excessive lead levels. [Ding Haitao]

A panel of experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and Ministry of Health were sent to head investigations into the poisonings in Wugang and Kunming. A full report is expected this week but on Aug 28 the panel said it had found "no direct link" between the excessive lead levels and industrial production.

However, all reports of the illness were from residential areas near smelting plants, while experts have warned the scandals underline the flaws in environmental protection and civil affairs bureaus.

Many also blasted local authorities for putting economic development before public health.

The Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting company opened in the town of Changqing in Fengxiang in 2004 and contributes 17 percent of the county's gross domestic product (GDP). A government probe last month identified the plant as the cause of the worst of the recent outbreaks, in which 851 children were found to be sick and 157 were hospitalized.

"The poisoning cases come as no surprise," said Jin Yinlong, director-general of the National Institute for Environment and Health under the nation's Center for Disease Control. "There are many heavy metal industries and the public has been widely exposed to lead through industrial waste.

Poison in the mindset

"Sources of lead poisoning are everywhere in China, but the biggest effect on people's health is the low standard of controls for industrial emissions."

Jacob de Boer, a professor in environmental chemistry and toxicology at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, Holland, agreed and said: "For vulnerable groups like children the level of poisoning is 100 mcg/l. But in developed nations such as the United States and Japan, the standard is 60 mcg/l and 40 mcg/l respectively."

Villagers in Madaokou told China Daily the Dongling plant sits on land that was "acquired by force" from residents in 2003 by the county government.

"They mowed our corn and dismantled our houses without our permission," said villager Ma Shengqin. "We all knew the factory would end up causing pollution but we had to accept the project. We had no choice."

Wang Mingming, director of Fengxiang's publicity department, declined to comment on the claims and said the factory was built before he took office.

"People living close to the sites of proposed industrial projects nearly always have a general idea of the potential risks and hazards they face," said Gu Haibing, professor in public management at the Renmin University of China in Beijing. "But, more often than not, their voices are too weak because they are scattered through several different areas. Villagers usually have to protest to get their voice heard."

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