From statesman.com:
Villagers in this hamlet of squat houses in southern China’s Guangdong province say red is the color of cancer. The local Laza River has been stained russet by waste from upstream mines in recent decades.
The number of residents dying of various forms of cancer has spiked: Since 1998, 19 of 26 deaths in the village of 320 people were due to cancer, local records show…
According to a 2003 study by Chinese scientists, the amount of lead and other heavy metals in the nearby Weng River, a downstream tributary of the Laza, was as much as 10 times government-permitted levels. [Full Text, subscriber only]
Related Reuters’ article: China to Fund Pollution Checks says,”China will pour 2 billion yuan (US$250 million) into measuring pollution and enforcing controls as it struggles to stem toxic emissions from its feverish industrial growth, state media reported Saturday.”
