‘Hundreds of thousands’ of lead-poisoned Chinese children denied care: Human Rights Watch
Hong Kong (AFP) June 14, 2011 – Chinese officials in provinces with heavy industrial pollution are restricting access to lead testing or even falsifying test results, and denying children treatment, a US rights group said Wednesday. Human Rights Watch accused officials in four provinces — Henan, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Hunan — of trying to cover up the extent of lead poisoning among local children, including limiting their access to blood tests. “Local authorities are ignoring the urgent and long-term health consequences of a generation of children continuously exposed to life-threatening levels of lead,” said the study, titled: “My Children Have Been Poisoned”: A Public Health Crisis in Four Chinese Provinces [pdf]. Excessive levels of lead in the blood are considered hazardous, particularly to children, who can experience stunted growth and mental retardation. “But there is not a real recognition of the fact that lead poisoning causes lifelong disability,” Joe Amon, director of the group’s health and human rights division, told a news briefing in Hong Kong. “This is creating a generation of kids … who will be less able to drive the economic growth that China is counting on.” The report estimated that “hundreds of thousands” of children, mainly in poor rural villages with nearby factories, were suffering from lead poisoning. … Family members and journalists seeking information about the problem are intimidated, harassed and ultimately silenced, the report added. Earlier this month, more than 600 people, including 103 children, in east China’s Zhejiang province were found with high and sometimes dangerous levels of lead in their blood, according to local health authorities. … In May, authorities in Zhejiang detained 74 people and suspended work at hundreds of factories after 172 people, including 53 children, fell ill due to lead. Nearly 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning in the central province of Henan in 2009 with local smelting plants found to be responsible. …
