China moves lead poisoning families
China plans to move 15,000 people living near its biggest lead smelter
base, after over 1,000 children were found with excessive levels of
lead in their blood.
Script:
China plans to move 15,000 people living near its biggest lead smelter base, after over 1,000 children were found with excessive levels of lead in their blood.
Residents of Shibin village in central Henan province are furious after tests showed that every child in the village has unacceptable lead levels.
Four-year-old Zhang Jiahang has almost 700 milligrams of lead per litre of his blood, 7 times the level accepted in China.
His grandmother Li Hudie said the effects were already showing.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin with English translation) ZHANG'S GRANDMOTHER LI HUDIE SAYING:
"He is not obedient and sometimes he gets very grumpy. He gets sick very often and it takes him longer to recover, despite all the different treatments we have tried. He sometimes has a fever or even spasms. He still cannot count to three after over a year of schooling."
A child who ingests large amounts of lead may develop anaemia, muscle weakness and brain damage, but poisoning is usually gradual.
State media said 10 villages would be moved to protect their residents, but grandfather Huang Zhengmin said the people were not the officials' priority.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin with English translation) HUANG WEISEN'S GRANDFATHER HUANG ZHENGMIN SAYING:
"The local government has been trying to stop us getting blood tests and making it public. They just want to protect the plant, which pays a great deal of tax every year. They don't care about the life and death of us ordinary people. So the whole village has to be relocated to make way for the plant. The pollution just carries on."
Lead contamination is widespread in China, where polluting plants have sprung up in the countryside to feed a boom in demand for metals.
150 children were hospitalised in northern Shaanxi province earlier this year, while similar incidents have occurred in metal bases across the country.
Maxim Duncan, Reuters, Beijing