The 2009 Chinese lead poisoning scandal occurred in the

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ning ...

province of China when pollution from a

lead Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...

plant poisoned children in the surrounding area.''China uses fear to hush up poisoned children''
/ref> Over 850 were affected. Villagers have accused the local and central governments of covering up the scandal.

History

In 2003 the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Company set up a factory in the Changqing

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

''More than 1,300 children fall ill near Chinese smelting plants''
/ref> near the city of

Baoji () is a prefecture-level city in western Shaanxi province, People's Republic of China. Since the early 1990s, Baoji has been the second largest city in Shaanxi. Geography The prefecture-level city of Baoji had a population of 3,321,853 accordin ...

, describing it in brochures as "a garden-like factory". Soon "100,000 tons of lead and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic t ...

a year and 700,000 tons of coke" were being produced. In 2008 it paid more than £10m in taxes to the local government, 17% of the administration's total income, and provided jobs for 2,000 households. Local parents however noticed that children were showing signs of illness - such as nose bleeds and memory problems. 851 children from seven villages surrounding the plant displayed up to 10 times the level of lead in their blood deemed safe by Chinese authorities. Over 170 of the children had to be hospitalised.''More parents protest against lead poisoning in China''
/ref> Local villagers protested to authorities but claim they were ignored. On 17 August 2009 they attacked the plant causing the managers to flee. The plant has now been closed down, but according to Western reports all coverage in the Chinese media of events has now been banned. Chinese lead supplies the country's battery industry, the world's largest. Lead poisoning can lead to

anaemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, t ...

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are Organ (biology), organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other ...

weakness and

brain damage Neurotrauma, brain damage or brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating t ...

and damages the nervous and

reproductive system The reproductive system of an organism, also known as the genital system, is the biological system made up of all the anatomical organs involved in sexual reproduction. Many non-living substances such as fluids, hormones, and pheromones are al ...

Similar events

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' reported in September 2009 that "similar protests broke out in three other provinces, where horrified parents living near smelters of lead,

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

and

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...

also learnt that their children had been poisoned—1,300 of them in one city alone". Villages that suffer from such pollution are often dubbed ' cancer villages". Child health is an important issue in China, where many families are restricted to just one child. Nearly 2,000 children were poisoned in the Shaanxi and Hunan provinces. Parents and villagers rioted in the Hunan province after the mass poisonings became known. The government promised to move villagers to a new, safer living location, but plans for the move were postponed when the new location was found also to be contaminated.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lead Poisoning Scandal, 2009 Chinese 2009 in China Health disasters in China Scandals in China Economic history of the People's Republic of China Lead poisoning incidents 2009 health disasters 2009 in the environment 2009 scandals Environmental disasters in China

History

Similar events

See also

References