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Gov't hushing up lead poisoning epidemic - report

Published:Thursday | June 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
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In this August 2009 file photo, villagers with their children wait for blood tests after the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co smelting plant poisoned children in Baoji city, west of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China. China is depriving millions of children suffering from lead poisoning of needed testing, treatment and prevention, despite its campaign to crack down on widespread heavy metal contamination, a rights group said yesterday. - FILE photos
In this August 19, 2009 file photo, children affected by lead poisoning receive medical treatment at a hospital.
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 SHANGHAI (AP):

Millions of Chinese children suffer from lead poisoning despite a crackdown on contamination, and local officials are systematically withholding the right to medical testing to cover up the problem, a rights group alleges.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday that authorities often are depriving victims of needed testing, treat-ment and prevention. It also says the government has failed to force polluting factories to close and clean up contamination despite its high-profile effort to crack down on heavy metals pollution.

"Children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood are being refused treatment and returned home to contaminated houses in polluted villages," said Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch.

Officials at China's ministries of health, work safety and environ-mental protection declined to comment on the allegations.

China has launched a campaign to crack down on poisoning by heavy metals such as lead and to clean up contamination. Hundreds of lead-acid battery factories were closed in eastern China's Zhejiang province after several major pollution cases were spotlighted by state-run media.

In the most recently reported case, more than 600 people, including 103 children, were reported sickened from tinfoil processing workshops in the Zhejiang town of Yangxunqiao. All the children and 26 adults were suffering from severe lead poisoning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.