Nearly 1,000 children in central China have tested positive for lead poisoning in the latest environmental scandal to erupt in the nation's smelting industry, state press said Tuesday. The news comes close on the heels of a spate of lead poisoning incidents around China, and after residents in Jiyuan city, Henan province, protested over pollution from three local smelters last month, Xinhua news agency said.
"The news (of excess lead levels) is like an earthquake," the report quoted Li Hongwei, a Jiyuan resident as saying. "We are all worried about the health of our kids." Following tests on more than 2,700 children under the age of 14, health authorities found that 968 children had excessive levels of lead in their blood, the report said.
All children living within 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) of the three major lead smelters - the Yuguang Gold and Lead Group, Wanyang Smeltery Group and the Jinli Smelting - were removed from the area, it added.
Excessive levels of lead are considered hazardous particularly to children, who can experience stunted growth and even mental retardation. The Jiyuan government further suspended production at 32 of the 35 electrolytic lead plants in the area, it added.
"The excessive blood lead levels are a result of long-term accumulation of pollution," the report cited Jiyuan mayor Zhao Suping as saying. The city has a 52-year history of lead production, it said.
The scandal follows a mass lead poisoning case in neighbouring Shaanxi province in August when 851 children tested positive for excessive lead levels in their blood, leading to the hospitalisation of 174, the report said. Since then similar cases have appeared in Hunan, Fujian and Yunnan provinces, leading to public protests against pollution and the sacking and jailing of government officials and factory bosses.