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China downplays risk to children from lead poisoning: report
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China downplays risk to children from lead poisoning: report
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A child holds a laboratory sheet showing high levels of lead in her blood at a village in Wugang, Hunan province August 18, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/China Daily
By Michael Martina
BEIJING |
Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:32am EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese children suffering lead poisoning from polluting smelters and factories have been denied testing, effective treatment and even basic information by officials who downplayed health threats, a human rights advocacy group said on Wednesday.
The report from Human Rights Watch comes after China's latest lead pollution outbreak, when 103 children and scores of adults were poisoned by tinfoil-making workshops in eastern Zhejiang province.
Beijing has vowed to clean up this chronic pollution, but New York-based Human Rights Watch said those efforts only go so far in addressing the needs of hundreds of thousands of children it says are suffering from lead poisoning in China.
Lead, especially harmful for children, can lead to learning difficulties and behavioral problems, and often parents who work at the plants bring home extra doses on their clothes and skin.
"I want to know how sick my son is, but I can't trust the local test results," one mother from Hunan province in southern China told investigators, according to the report available on the Human Rights Watch website: (www.hrw.org).
Citizens who complain about the problem face pressure, the rights watchdog said, citing dozens of interviews with parents in areas afflicted by pollution.
"Parents, journalists, and community activists who dare to speak out about lead are detained, harassed, and ultimately silenced," Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement released with the report
Rapid industrial growth in China has increased citizens' worries about their health, especially where towns and villages located next to poorly regulated factories and workshops have been stricken by pollution problems.
China is the world's biggest consumer of refined lead, and battery making accounts for 70 percent of that consumption, which is likely to grow to 4.1 million tonnes in 2011.
China's environment ministry has promised to tackle heavy metal poisoning as widespread cases have sparked public anger and protests.
Three-quarters of lead-acid battery manufacturing plants in China could be phased out in the next two to three years, an industry body said last month.
MISLEADING INFORMATION
Despite those vows, leaders in Beijing have struggled to rein in local officials who put jobs and economic growth ahead of environmental protection.
Based on 52 interviews, Human Rights Watch found that local governments denied the scope of potential poisoning and issued misleading information about the dangers of living close to polluting factories.
Parents were often told that drinking milk or eating garlic and eggs was adequate treatment for lead poisoning, the advocacy group said.
"The doctor told us all the children in this village have lead poisoning. Then they told us a few months later that all the children are healthy. They wouldn't let us see the results from the tests though," said a parent from Yunnan province quoted in the report.
"The government doesn't want to have to give us anything so they make up the results," another parent from Henan province said.
Lead poisoning can build up through regular exposure to small amounts, damaging the nervous and reproductive systems and kidneys, as well as causing high blood pressure and anemia.
"In villages where lead exposure is highest, a generation of cognitively and physically disabled children will need significant and ongoing support," the report said.
The group compared the corruption and cover-up of nationwide lead poisoning cases to the high-profile AIDS and SARs scandals that shattered international confidence in China's public health administration in the 1990s and early 2000s.
"The response to lead poisoning has so far followed this same road, but it is not too late for the Chinese government to take a different approach," the report said.
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Comments (5)
McBob08 wrote:
If the Republicans manage to get rid of EPA regulation, that will be America in a few years, as heavy metal poisoning and a slew of other toxic exposures go unchecked by greedy Industry. Companies have proven that they will only come clean if there are forced to do so by the government.
Protecting Americans from the ravages of capitalism is one of the most important functions of the government, because if they don’t regulate businesses, things will devolve back to the horrendous conditions and accidents typical of the East India Company
Jun 15, 2011 5:46am EDT -- Report as abuse
BCerentano wrote:
That’s one of the reason “American” companies have flocked to China (the other being paying workers a few dollars a day). No sacrifice is too large in the name of Corporate Profits. Its time to get our jobs back. AmericanBoycott.com
Jun 15, 2011 6:08am EDT -- Report as abuse
JebJackson wrote:
Pretty easy for us to report on and scowl about the Chinese Govt. for allowing such behavior… If it weren’t for the fact that we are funding it all, and at our own economic expense. However, there really is only one word to sum this up with: DISGUSTING. Disgusting to the whole thing, to all involved, and all of this to enrich just a handfull of sociopathic fat boys. Time to come to terms with reality, America.
Jun 15, 2011 7:30am EDT -- Report as abuse
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