Industrial toxins thought to be cause of high cancer rates and lead poisoning

Source:Global Times Published: 2015-1-26 19:58:01

Xiao Chunlian, 69, a villager from Zhimuzu in Hunan Province sits in her kitchen on January 11. Her husband died of lung cancer in 2009. Photo: CFP

Heavy smoke rises from a chimney in Qingshuitang Industrial Zone in 2012. Photo: IC


 

Zhong Guangfeng, like many other women in her village, became a widow after her then 55-year-old husband died last July.

"He suddenly collapsed in our yard," Zhong recalled. The cause of his death - cancer - has also killed many other men in this village in Zhuzhou in Central China's Hunan Province.

Even the local demographics department leader, Liu Chunlin, said he cannot figure out the root of why so many women have been widowed in Zhimuzu  in recent years.

"Outsiders all knew that Zhimuzu is a village of widows since most of the men have died of cancer," Liu said.

The majority of residents and village leaders believe that industrial pollution is the primary cause of the prevalence of cancer in the village.

Thousands of residents including Zhong live in an old industrial base in Zhuzhou, the Qingshuitang Industrial Zone, which contains at least 10 enterprises that discharge pollutants, including smelting plants and chemical factories and coal preparation factories.

In the Qingxia community where Zhimuzu village is located, over 10 percent of the total 1,580 residents have suffered from cancer, and more and more young male residents have become victims of the disease. The youngest cancer patient in the community was 32 years old.

Cancer patients who come from Qingshuitang Industrial Zone significantly outnumber patients from other areas in Zhuzhou, according to Li Jie (pseudonym), a doctor from the Zhuzhou Cancer Hospital.

Fearing cancer, residents have petitioned local authorities for resettlement for 10 years. But the relocation project encountered obstacles due to insufficient financial support.

Factories

Every night, residential communities are shrouded in the smog created by around 10 factory chimneys scattered throughout the Qingshuitang Industrial Zone.

Residents keep their windows closed even in the hot summer because the pungent odor in the air is so strong that no one can breathe, according to a resident whose house is less than 100 meters away from a chemical factory's chimney.

The low-lying Zhimuzu village is surrounded by factories and, according to Liu, is the most severely contaminated area in Qingshuitang.

Sulfur dioxide emissions from factories in Qingshuitang accounted for 89.5 percent of total emissions in Zhuzhou, while dust emissions from these factories accounted for 87 percent of Zhuzhou's total. Zhuzhou was listed as one of the 10 most polluted cities in China in 2004 and 2005 by the former State Environmental Protection Administration, according to the Zhuzhou government's website.

The problem is not limited to air pollution; the water in Qingshuitang is also contaminated.

The Zhuzhou environmental protection authority fined two factories 2.4 million yuan ($385,368) and 1.2 million yuan, for discharging waste into Xiawan Port in 2014.

The farmland in Qingshuitang is also contaminated with excessive levels of heavy metals including arsenic and lead, according to a research conducted by Zhu Yun, a doctoral candidate at Hunan Normal University.

"No one in Zhuzhou will buy vegetables grown here since they are toxic," Zhang Heping, a resident of Zhimuzu village said.

Victims

The nickname "widow village" may date back to 2004 when a Hunan media outlet, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post, first revealed conditions in Zhimuzu. Nearly 20 male villagers died of cancer in three years, the report said.

The village had 18 households headed by widows in January, which accounts for 9 percent of the 200 families in the village, 60 percent of which have had a cancer patient among their family members. The husbands of 11 of the 18 widows died of lung cancer.

Many children in Qingshuitang were also found to have excessive amounts of lead in their blood.

Li Xia (pseudonym), an employee of the Shifeng district government, the superior administrative department of the Qingxia community, whose house is just beside the Qingshuitang Industrial Zone, said that the lead in her child's blood was 130 percent higher than the standard at birth. After taking lead-expelling medicine, the amount of lead has only decreased by about a dozen percentage points.

Excessive amounts of lead in children's blood is prevalent in the Qingxia community, although the local government has never organized a lead test for all 300 children in the area.

"The government will not organize such tests because it would face great pressure," an anonymous Shifeng district government employee said.

Reporters from thepaper.cn visited 10 families that kept the laboratory test results of their children's blood lead levels and found that all 10 children had excessive amounts of lead, with the highest having 310 micrograms in every liter of blood. Children's blood lead levels should be less than 100 micrograms per liter. 

Kang Min, father of a 3-year-old boy with a blood lead level of 310 micrograms per liter, said that his son has developed hyperactivity and a violent temper.

Relocation

Residents in four villages in the Qingshuitang Industrial Zone set up a roadblock for the sixth time on December 1, 2014.

Their demand was the same as before: relocate either the villagers or the factories.

According to Liu, Zhimuzu village negotiated with the government about relocation four or five years ago, but "the government would only compensate each family with 200,000 yuan, which is far from enough to purchase an apartment elsewhere," Liu said.

Qiu Jianying, the director of the Qingxia community, said that the relocation of the whole community would cost around 1 billion yuan.

The National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice last March on relocating old industrial zones that listed Qingshuitang as one of 21 pilot zones for relocation.

The Hunan authority had started the preliminary work of relocating the whole industrial zone by January 16, according to rednet.cn.

"But the whole project involved too many people, and the government's finances were tight," Qiu said.

thepaper.cn
Newspaper headline: Pollution killing Hunan villagers


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