SOME 200 children are suffering from lead poisoning in southwest China in the country’s third such case of mass illness in the past month and the latest blow to the country’s environmental record.
Children in Tongdu, a township in Yunnan province’s capital of Kunming, have become sick because of what parents say is poisoning by a nearby industrial estate, while local environmental officials said it was because of car exhaust fumes.
The latest scandal about lead poisoning is feeding into growing public anger about lax public safety standards, which have affected children in particular.
The ruling Communist party is worried that public dissatisfaction will translate into instability and challenge its grip on power.
The news of yet another lead poisoning incident comes as health authorities in Kunming published data showing that nearly all of about 1,000 children tested in part of the city had evidence of lead poisoning, the official China Daily reported.
“Their levels are all higher than 100 microgrammes of lead in each litre of blood, but lower than 200 microgrammes per litre,” a doctor called Wu Ling told the paper.
Earlier this month more than 1,300 children in central Hunan province and at least 615 children in northern Shaanxi province tested positive for lead poisoning, which can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and memory loss.
There were equally horrific reports from provinces with a lot of heavy-metal activity, including Hunan, Henan, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces.
At least three lead smelters in Henan province and two in Shaanxi province were ordered to temporarily halt production after protests against pollution at a lead and zinc smelter in Shaanxi.
Poisoning by lead, a heavy metal widely used in industrial production, can build up slowly and occurs from repeated exposure to small amounts of lead which can harm a child’s mental development. Health problems get more severe as the level of lead in the blood gets higher, in some cases causing permanent damage in children in small doses that were previously thought to be safe.
It was a major problem in Ireland in the 1980s, although it was alleviated by bringing in lead-free petrol during that decade.
Lead levels throughout China remain high. A study by Beijing Women and Children’s Hospital in 2003 showed the average lead level in the capital’s children under the age of six was 96.8 microgrammes. More than a third of the 2,000 children sampled had over 100 microgrammes.