A lead and zinc plant was found to be the main source of lead poisoning that sickened more than 600 children in northwestern China, prompting an apology from a company official to residents, a state news agency reported yesterday.
Tests by environmental officials found a higher than normal lead content in the air around the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co in Changqing, a township in Shaanxi Province, Xinhua news agency said.
The report did not say if the plant, which belongs to Dongling Group, one of the biggest private companies in Shaanxi Province, would be punished for the contamination.
At least 615 out of 731 children living in two villages near the smelter tested positive for lead poisoning, which can damage the nervous and reproductive systems, cause high blood pressure, anemia, memory loss, and, in extreme cases, cause victims to fall into comas and die.
The report cited Han Qinyou, a local head of the environmental protection monitoring station, as saying lead content in the air along the main roads near the factory was 6.3 times that of sites located 350m away.
Xinhua quoted Han as saying in a press conference on Saturday that tests showed the groundwater, surface water, soil and company’s waste discharge “met national standards.”
But Han also said other possible factors for lead poisoning should not be ruled out, such as auto exhaust, diet and living habits, Xinhua said, without elaborating.
Zhao Weiping (趙衛平), a deputy Chinese Communist Party secretary of the Dongling Group, apologized to local residents and pledged to cooperate with authorities in helping to treat the sickened children and work to meet environmental standards, Xinhua said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of