2010-01-06 04:43:19 - Enviroment Pollution - China EDIS CODE: ED-20100106-24449-CHN
Date & Time: 2010-01-06 04:43:19 [UTC]
Area: China, Province of Jiangsu, , Hekou Event exciting : Lead poisoning
Number of Injured person(s): 51
Damage level: Heavy (Level 3)
Not confirmed information! Description: Fifty-one children in a village in southeast China have been found to have high levels of lead in their blood, which authorities have linked to a battery factory, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday. The incident occurred in Hekou Village in the Dafeng Economic Development area in Jiangsu, where 110 of the village's 132 children were examined. Nearly half the exams -- 51 -- showed lead poisoning, the agency said. It cited government organizations in Dafeng that said the government will investigate and require the factory to move from the area. Jiangsunews, a local news Web site, quoted villagers who said more than 100 of the children and the battery factory's employees had lead poisoning. But the director of Dafeng Shengxiang Battery Co. Ltd. said the factory was not culpable. He told a reporter that the factory was equipped with pollution-control devices, and government authorities had approved its production. Doctors say that children are most susceptible to lead poisoning because it interferes with the development of the nervous system and can cause learning and behavior disorders. In severe cases, it can be fatal.
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