Zheng Gumei thought she had a cold until the doctor told her to wait outside the room so he could talk to her son alone.
? knew then that I must have a serious illness,?the 47-year-old farmer recalled, wiping away the tears. ?? having treatment now. See, my hair has fallen out.?
She took off her hat to show the side-effects of chemotherapy.
Like many other residents of Xinglong, a small rural community next to an industrial park in Yunnan Province, she had little doubt about the source of her cancer.
?he pollution in this village is bad, people get sick,?she said.
Such stories have become more common in China in recent years with breakneck economic growth increasingly taking its toll on the nation? health.
Since last year, there has been an explosion of lead poisoning cases close to smelting plants. Studies have shown communities that recycle electronic waste are exposed to cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardants.
Elsewhere, there have been protests against chemical factories blamed for carcinogens that enter water supplies and the food chain.
Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation? biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80 percent since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier.
While the government says it is cleaning up pollution far faster than other nations at a similar dirty stage of development, many toxic industries have simply been relocated to impoverished, poorly regulated, rural areas.
Chinese farmers are almost four times more likely to die of liver cancer and twice as likely to die of stomach cancer, compared with the global average, according to a study commissioned by the World Bank. The domestic media is increasingly filled with reports of ?ancer villages??clusters of the disease near dirty factories.
FEAR OF POLLUTION
There have been few epidemiological studies to validate such claims, but the scale of such reports highlights the growing fear of pollution.
Last year an investigative journalist, Deng Fei, posted a widely circulated Google map showing more than 100 ?ancer villages.?More recent reports suggest the number could exceed 400.
The majority of the places are on the richer eastern seaboard, the first area in China to accept ?utsourced?dirty industries from overseas. However, as these regions have moved up the value chain and tightened regulations, there have been signs that the pollution and cancer belt could be moving inland to areas that are either less aware of the dangers or too poor to turn away business.
Deep in the scorched countryside of northeast Yunnan, the residents of Xinglong fear they may soon join the list of sick villages. An acrid stench assails the senses near the Luliang city industrial park, the thicket of 計olluting factories locals blame for an outbreak of deadly tumors.
Cui Xiaoliang said he lost his aunt and father to cancer after the village streams changed color. Pointing to the lurid red discharge from the Yinhe paper mill and a yellow trickle below the Peace Technology chemical factory, he said health had declined along with the environment.
?efore the factories were built, there was no cancer. We were free of strange diseases,?he said, grimacing at the nauseating fumes.
?ow, we hear every year that this person or that has cancer, especially lung and liver cancer. My aunt never drank alcohol or smoked. Her cancer was completely caused by pollution,?she said.
At the village clinic Zhang Jianyou, a doctor, said he has noticed an increase in cancer cases among the 3,000 residents.
CANCER EPIDEMIC
?he pollution has definitely had an impact. I have been here 43 years. In the past, cancer was not obvious, but in recent years it has become a very evident problem,?he said.
Zhang said that when residents tried to protest, they were blocked by the authorities because the chemical factories contributed to the local economy.
All in the village know of someone who has died of cancer; most people blame the toxins flowing from the chemical 苯actories into the Nanpan River and groundwater supply. Farmers say they have no other source of water for crops and animals. Goat herders claim 10 percent of their animals have died.
The impact may well have spread to the human food chain. Wang Qingdi, a peach farmer who lives next to the chemical factory, said crops were ruined by contaminated water and air, but were still sold at the market because there was no other income.
?hen the wind blows in this direction, a thick layer of soot settles on my peach trees. Lots of fruit turn black and fall to the ground. I dare not eat the rice I plant and harvest because the pollution is so bad. I sell it on the street,?he said.
The county environment department said it was monitoring the industrial park and paying particular attention to three companies: Longhai Chemical, Yunnan Luliang Peace Technology and the Yinhe paper mill. However, inspectors lack the authority and resources to keep close tabs and impose punitive measures on any factories breaking the rules.
?t is like police trying to catch a thief. It? not easy,?said Song Bin, of the Luliang environmental protection department. ?ome factories secretly discharge pollution. Some shut down treatment devices when electricity is in short supply. Others turn off their systems at night when they know we are not checking.?br />
?t is hard to say whether there is a relationship between cancer and the factories because the workers do not have unusually high rates of the disease. Many officials have suggested we invite experts to do a systematic study, but we haven? done this yet because of budget and other reasons,?he added.
LITTLE TRANSPARENCY
The Guardian requested data on factory emissions and water quality. Under information transparency law, such data are supposed to be publicly available, but officials said their monitoring results were for internal use only.
Yinhe paper mill refused to comment. Yunnan Luliang Peace Technology said the pollution problems dated back to previous owners and were now being rectified.
?he cancer situation in the village has nothing to do with us,?said Candy Xu, foreign sales manager. ?he pollution accumulated over 10 years. It can? be solved immediately, but we deal with it year by year. Within three to five years, I believe we can clear it up. The previous company was irresponsible to the local residents and it is not fair to blame us for their mistakes.?br />
The new owners from the rich coastal province of Zhejiang have invested in new equipment and are trying to shift production toward cleaner, high-end nutritional supplements and feed additives, but their Web site still lists sodium dichromate, a highly carcinogenic chemical, among its products.
In a recent study of ?ancer villages,?Lee Liu, of the University of Central Missouri, said the problem was exacerbated by the government? tendency to focus on urban development at the cost of rural areas. This, and a lack of independent oversight, have added to a toxic cocktail. Without a full study, it cannot be known whether Xinglong should join the list of cancer clusters, but rising cancer rates and appalling pollution levels leave residents in little doubt.
For Zheng, breast cancer does not just threaten her life, but the financial wellbeing of her daughter. She has had to borrow 20,000 yuan (US$2,925) for two courses of chemotherapy and estimates it will cost another 80,000 yuan to cure the disease. She knows that is far from certain.
? want to tell the factories they make too much pollution. Because of them Xinglong village is sick,?she said.
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