OPINION> EDITORIALS
Leaden heart
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-21 07:57

Those who understand what children mean to parents surely would not be surprised by the action of hundreds of parents, who stormed a smelting plant in northwest China's Shaanxi province on Monday after more than 800 local children fell ill due to lead and heavy metal discharge from the company.

The latest news that another 100 children were found suffering from lead poisoning in Wugang county of central China's Hunan province proved to be another appalling case of the serious lead pollution that is threatening the lives of numerous Chinese, especially children. However, the two high-profile cases have exposed only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lead poisoning and other pollution in the country.

While blood lead level test is still not conducted on a wide scale among Chinese children, studies of 15 major Chinese cities a few years ago showed that the average blood lead level (BLL) of children aged under 6 reached 59.52 micrograms per liter of blood. The figures are considered substantially higher in areas with dense manufacturing industries. In the latest Hunan case, BLL of 232 micrograms and 362 micrograms per liter of blood was found in a villager's two daughters.

The acceptable level of BLL in Australia is 15 micrograms per liter of blood. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has set BLL above 10 micrograms per liter as cause for concern, although lead can even impair children's mental and physical development at BLLs below 10 micrograms per liter.

Lead is widely known to pose more risk to children than adults because their smaller and growing bodies make them more susceptible to absorbing and retaining lead. Besides inflicting damages on their mental development, lead can also cause a number of other health problems such as headache, stomach pain, behavioral distortion, anemia and delayed puberty in girls.

While enjoying a double-digit economic growth for the last three decades, China has been plagued by mounting pollution in both the nation's cities and countryside. Heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, have seriously polluted the water, soil and air in the country, causing subsequent pollution in plants and animals and then human beings.

This problem has worsened in recent years as big cities undergoing industrial restructuring have been relocating their polluting industries to rural areas and the central and western part of the country, where land is cheaper and environmental standards enforcement loose.

So the two incidents in Shaanxi and Hunan are simply sounding the alarming bells for heavy metal and other pollutants that are pervasive in a country where pursuit of high GDP growth is the top priority for most regional officials.

The two cases are a wake-up call to governments at all levels for taking effective and proactive measures to deal with the root cause of poisoning caused by lead and other metallic toxins. High GDP growth need not be at the cost of destroying our children's mental and physical health.

(China Daily 08/21/2009 page8)