~ Linn Maung ~
The recent case of lead contamination in food, which led to the hospitalisation of over 200 children in northwestern China, has brought to the fore the rampant industrial pollution, weak enforcement of environmental regulations, corporate negligence, and even government cover-ups or inaction. There have been several such incidents wherein children in different parts of China were exposed to toxic pollutants and hazardous chemicals.
Over 200 kindergarten children were to be hospitalised in Tianshui of Gansu Province in July after the lead was used in the food they ate. Shockingly, the food had lead levels that were 2,000 times over the national safety limit. While this incident revived memories of a similar food poisoning incident in 2006, people expressed anger over poor governance and supervision. “Serious accountability must be maintained and food safety issues cannot be ignored or slacked off. When it involves the life safety of young children, severe punishment must be imposed,” said one person on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of X (formerly, Twitter).
In 2016, hundreds of children from the Changzhou Foreign Languages School in Jiangsu province suffered from serious ailments after their school was relocated to a former chemical plant site. Of the 641 students who underwent medical examination, as many as 493 were declared ill. “My leg cramps and I get pimples. My hands start to peel,” said one 12-year-old student. Lymphoma and leukaemia dermatitis were diagnosed in some cases, even as bronchitis and white blood cell deficiencies were reported in many cases.
Notably, students had complained of contaminated water and a smell in the air like rotten duck eggs. “The water is strange and tastes a bit sour,” said a mother of a student. Authorities however refused to move the school to a safer place after parents expressed concerns over the toxicity. Rather, it sealed the area with a layer of clay, leaving students still exposed to the toxic soil.
Toxic compounds and heavy metals were found in the soil and water in the area, even as the level of carcinogenic chlorobenzene was almost 100,000 times the safety limit. “It is very sad. It’s tragic. It’s hard to imagine the feelings, especially for the parents, whose children have been exposed to such toxic sites,” said Ma Jun, the director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Chinese authorities were criticised for the negligence and poor enforcement of rules and regulations. The news related to the tragedy was shared more than 30 million times on Weibo. Greenpeace, a global environmental organisation, also expressed concern over allowing schools to operate in the presence of other hazardous chemicals. “The tragedy that has occurred in Changzhou shows just how dangerously lax China’s hazardous chemical management is,” said Ada Kong, Greenpeace East Asia toxics campaign manager.
Over 80 percent of Children in Guiyu of Guangdong Province have shown dangerous blood lead levels (BLL) thanks to the improper disposal of electronic waste. Known as the ‘electronic graveyard of the world’, Guiyu has several illegal e-waste processing businesses. Greenpeace found that one child in Guiyu had the BLL of 32.67 ug/dL, which was three times higher than the national average. All four villages in the Guiyu area had had much higher levels of mean BLL compared to the rest of the country.
Several studies reported that blood lead levels (BLLs) in the children in Guiyu were much higher than those in nearby areas. Despite the complaints by parents in Guiyu, the absence of government action continued to expose children to lead. “Guiyu is still facing the serious e-waste lead exposure problem in China. Lead poisoning continues to be a major public health problem for local children in Guiyu. Children’s lead poisoning prevention and controlling should be a long-term mission in Guiyu,” said a study by Chinese researchers led by Pi Guo of Sun Yat-sen University.
In 2009, hundreds of Chinese parents had stormed a lead factory in Shaanxi province after over 600 children suffered health problems. Three officials were suspended in Zhejiang province for failing in supervision, leading to 170 villagers, including 53 children, getting poisoned due to lead emissions from a mobile factory. Regulations were often not enforced, and compliance was not met with, as the local authorities did not usually have the resources to inspect factories regularly, revealed Ma Tianjie, an expert on toxic pollutants with Greenpeace.
The lack of proper monitoring and regulation is often cited as the major reason for widespread exposure of toxic compounds to children in China. Commenting on the Shaanxi province, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China said “The case highlights ongoing lax compliance with environmental laws and policies, government accountability gaps, and insufficient protection for citizens’ environmental rights, including that of access to environmental information in China.
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