Seventy-nine students at a boarding school in Hunan Province were
poisoned last week, probably by gases from waste water discharged
by an illegal private paper factory.
As
of Sunday, 54 of the boarding school students were still
hospitalized at the Anhua County No 2 People's Hospital. But the
students, who attend Donghua primary school in Meicheng Township of
Anhua Connty, were in stable condition after emergency treatment,
reported the local Xiaoxiang Morning Post.
Local authorities said gases evaporating from the waste water
pro-bably contained poisonous chemicals like chlorine, according to
the newspaper. The factory, which started illegal operation in
April last year, was some 100 meters from the school.
Long Jinlin, the factory owner, said its factory freezed waste
water before discharging it. But on the evening of May 8, the
factory simply mixed the waste with cold water and then discharged
it. The tainted water, around 50 degrees Celsius, flowed into an
open ditch outside the factory and then into the school's
underground sewage system.
The poisonous gases evaporated quickly from the industrial water
and spread to the school's dormitories, according to the Morning
Post.
About 8:20 pm on May 8, students living in the dormitories began to
smell the strong chemicals.
"The smell was very strong and sharp, making breathing hard," said
Wu Penghui, who fell into a coma.
The private paper mill was told to shut down in late 2001 and
improve its environmental problems by June this year, accroding to
an official from the county's environmental bureau.
(eastday.com May 13, 2003)