China Finds 84 Kids With Lead Poisoning Due to Gold Extraction Operations
Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan have found 84 children in Heqing county with excessive levels of lead in their blood caused by illegal gold processing operations.
The children were diagnosed after the local environmental protection department cracked down on operations that used cyanide to extract gold from ore, the Heqing government said in a statement on its website yesterday. Rising gold prices had encouraged about 200 groups of villagers in the county to begin processing ore in their homes, which can generate lead fumes and poisonous solid waste, it said.
China, the world’s largest consumer of metals including lead and copper, has struggled to control pollution from its metallurgical operations. A leak at a plant in eastern China’s Fujian province owned by Zijin Mining Group Co., China’s largest gold producer, killed more than 1,500 metric tons of fish in a local river this month.
More than 4,000 people in China were poisoned by lead in 2009, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Among the victims were more than 2,000 children, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Tests last year in Henan, China’s largest lead-producing province, diagnosed 1,008 children with excessive lead in their blood, with Henan Yuguang Gold and Lead Co., China’s largest lead maker, closing an outdated plant there in October.
Blood tests conducted last year in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, found 200 children had excessive levels of lead. Children with above-normal levels of lead in their blood were also found in northwestern province of Shaanxi and the central province of Hubei in 2009.
Metal poisonings led to 32 protests in China last year, the environmental ministry said. The government closed 231 enterprises and suspended production at 641 metals plants in 2009, the ministry said.
For Related News and Information: Stories on China’s nonferrous metals industry: TNI CHINA NONFERR BN <GO> China economic statistics: ECST CH <GO> Most-read stories about China: MNI CHINA <GO>
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