From Reuters, another story about the dangers of industrial pollution in China:
Thousands of villagers from China’s northwestern province of Gansu have turned up at a hospital with lead poisoning which they say was caused by a local smelting plant, the South China Morning Post said on Wednesday.
Quoting the Huashang Daily, the newspaper said more than 2,000 residents from three villages, including 300 children, had traveled to the hospital in Xian in the neighboring province of Shaanxi because local hospitals had insisted they were fine.
“We don’t trust local hospitals because they said our lead concentration levels were normal, so we traveled to somewhere further away,” Liuj Jiangtao from Hiu county was quoted as saying. “Everyone from our village has gone there.” [Full text]
For an update on another tragedy from industrial pollution in China, see this People’s Daily story:
China’s top environment watchdog expects to be closing down serious polluters along the northeast Songhua River during a campaign this month that will inspect every factory along the polluted waterway.
The campaign, which runs through September, will target all chemical plants, paper mills, food processing companies, pharmaceutical factories and sewage treatment plants, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) on Tuesday.
