From the Times of India:
Three people have died and an additional 17 required medical treatment after they were exposed to bags of a toxic chemical illegally dumped by a factory in eastern China, the local government said on Wednesday.
Four of the people sickened were children who played near the chemical, 2,4-dinitrophenol– a poison used in scientific research and in manufacturing various chemicals, explosives and pesticides, according to a statement by the government in Dongyang, a city 250 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Shanghai… Investigators were holding four people alleged to be responsible for the poisonings, which occurred Sunday, and city officials pledged to tighten waste disposal controls.
A preliminary probe found that chemicals were dumped into plastic bags by a local chemicals factory and illegally passed on to a garbage collector, who then sold the bags to another waste collector. The three people killed were all transporting the bags when they fell ill, the government statement said.
See also past CDT posts on industrial waste.
