From AP:
The number of children sickened from lead poisoning has risen to more than 600 in a northern Chinese province where authorities shut a smelter earlier this week thought to have caused the contamination, state media reported.
More than 80 percent of the 731 children living in the two villages near the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in Shaanxi province have tested positive for lead poisoning, nearly double the number reported earlier this week, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday.
Families who lived near the factory began bringing in sick children to hospitals and clinics in July and blamed the smelting factory for contaminating nearby soil, air and the area’s water supply, the report said.
