Chinese protesters broke into a smelting works they blame for the lead poisoning of hundreds of children, smashing trucks and tearing down fences, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
More than 600 children living near the Dongling metal smelter in northwest China were found to have dangerous amounts of the heavy metal in their blood, and 154 are so sick they have been admitted to hospital, the report said.
Rumors were also spreading in a nearby village that a teenager had tried to commit suicide by drinking pesticide after blood tests showed excessive lead levels, Xinhua said.
Ma Jiaojiao, who like other victims lived near the plant, was diagnosed with a concentration of lead in her blood four times the recommended maximum safe level of 100 micrograms a liter.
She had paid for a blood test herself because she was over 14 years old, the government cut-off for free tests, Xinhua said. Its reporters could not reach her family and neighbors said Ma had been sent to hospital in nearby Baoji city.
The lead poisoning scandal emerged last week, after worried parents took their children for medical tests.
All the affected families live near the Changqing industrial park in Shaanxi Province. The county government was supposed to help relocate villagers living close by in 2006, but the plan is running far behind schedule.
The lead and zinc plant suspected of causing the poisoning is run by China’s fourth-biggest zinc producer Dongling Group. A company source said it had been shut for repairs since late last month and it was unclear when production would resume. Xinhua said operations were suspended on Aug. 6.
China’s pollution and lax product safety standards have long been a source of tension and unrest, particularly when residents of pollution hotspots — dubbed “cancer villages” because of high disease rates — feel they are being ignored.
A child who swallows large amounts of lead may develop anemia, muscle weakness and brain damage. Where poisoning occurs, it is usually gradual.
Cases involving children are particularly sensitive in a country where many families have only one son or daughter. China was shaken last year by a tainted milk scandal, which killed at least six children and sickened tens of thousands of others.
Dongling is still running two other zinc lines elsewhere in Shaanxi Province.
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