Over 2000 Feared To Have Lead Poisoning In China

FROTH AND BUBBLE

A group of villagers and their children from Shui Yang county in China's northern Gansu province, show off their blood test results at a hospital in Xian, northern China's Shaanxi province 04 September 2006, showing a high content of lead. Photo courtesy of AFP.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Sep 06, 2006
More than 2,000 villagers in northwest China are feared to have lead poisoning caused by a polluting smelting plant, officials and state media said Wednesday. More than 300 children were among those affected, all residents of Hui county in destitute Gansu province, the China News Service (CNS) reported.

Some of them had lead in their blood several times higher than safe levels, according to the report.

So far there was no definitive explanation for the cause of the sudden wave of poisoning but a general consensus blamed a local smelting factory, the Huashan Daily newspaper reported earlier.

Late last month the Hui county government ordered the factory to close and move to a safer location, according to the paper.

CNS described the plant as a virtual ecological time bomb, pumping out polluted waste water and emitting dark fumes and thick clouds of dust.

County officials told AFP many villagers had gone to Xian city in neighboring Shaanxi province to have their blood tested, trusting the more modern facilities there.

"After the news broke about 1,000 people had their blood lead levels tested," an official said.

"We haven't got complete statistics yet so we still can't say how many have been poisoned."

Lead poisoning can have a variety of adverse effects, from nausea and insomnia to comas and impaired mental development in children.

China's economic development offers the people of many regions a stark choice between a clean environment and rapid growth.

China's cities have some of the worst air pollution in the world, while its polluted waterways are already exacerbating existing water shortages in many parts of the nation.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

FROTH AND BUBBLE

Analysis: No Room For Shangri-La In China

Kangding, China (UPI) Sep 07, 2006
What one generally regards as modern China and its pollution-belching factories dotting the landscape hardly seems to have room for the nostalgic notion of a Shangri-la. Do not forget the ancient and the future reside side-by-side in China. In Beijing and eastern China in general it is not uncommon to go for days without seeing the sun in many urban areas.

ENERGY TECH Moscow Mayor Says Winter Energy Deficit Could Reach 20 Percent Fresh Declines For Oil Prices As Iran Fears Recede Schwarzenegger Ready To Sign Bill Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Schwarzenegger Caps Greenhouse-Gas Emissions In California	CIVIL NUCLEAR Australia Could Export Uranium To China Within Months Russia To Sell Nuke Fuel To South Africa Understanding Reactor Security Fears In The 21st Century Iran Hopes Russia Will Be Main Bidder In Two New NPP Projects
BLUE SKY NASA Experiment Finds Possible Trigger For Radio-Busting Bubbles California's Model Skies ESA Picks SSTL To Develop Atmospheric CO2 Detector Faster Atmospheric Warming In Subtropics Pushes Jet Streams Toward Poles	WOOD PILE Large-Scale Farming Now Causes Substantial Forest Loss in Amazon The Subtleties Of Tropical Forest Demise NASA Satellites Can See How Climate Change Affects Forests Papua Logging Industry Riddled With Corruption, Rights Abuses: Report
FARM NEWS China Rejects Claims Of GM Rice Entering EU Foods GM Chinese Rice Maybe Contaminating European Food French Police Arrest Three As Hundreds Try To Destroy GM Crops Japanese Sushi Infatuation Straining Atlantic Tuna Stocks	CAR TECH Real-Time Traffic Routing From The Comfort Of Your Car Real-Time Traffic Routing From The Comfort Of Your Car British Police Force To Introduce Greener Cars Two New Segway Models Offered
AEROSPACE US Sanctions On Russia Could Hurt Boeing Boeing Puts Aircraft Market At 2.6 Trillion Dollars Innovative Solutions Make Transportation Systems Safer Secure and Efficient Joint Strike Fighter Is Not Flawed Finds Australian Government	NUCLEAR SPACE Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear NASA plans to send new robot to Jupiter Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement