Over 200 children have excessive lead levels in eastern China

[News_Editor]

Over 200 children have excessive lead levels in eastern China

2011-01-05 22:05:55 GMT+7 (ICT)

HEFEI, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Over 200 children on Wednesday were found to have dangerous high levels of lead in their blood after tests in eastern China, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital tested approximately 280 children from the Gaohe town in Huaining County for lead poisoning during last December. The medical tests indicated that almost everyone had high blood lead levels.

Cheng Bangning, deputy director of the hospital's micro-elements testing laboratory, announced on Wednesday that 23 children were hospitalized after registering more than 250 micrograms of lead per liter of blood.

The youngest of the children admitted is nine months old. In addition, five children are waiting to be admitted. The children reside in the town's Xinshan community, near two battery plants.

The two facilities processes lead and parents of the sick infants claimed that there is only a road separating the community and the plants. The hospital staff concluded that the lead poisoning was caused by the plants' emissions.

Environmental protection authorities have ordered that no residential community should be built within a radius of 500 meters from a battery plant. The plants have been shut down by the government shortly before the testing began.

Excessive amounts of lead in the blood can cause damage to the digestive, nervous, and reproductive systems and also stomach aches, anemia and convulsions.

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