Twenty-two people seriously poisoned by Tuesday's chlorine leakage
in east
China's
Jiangsu
Province are out of life danger, local hospital authorities
said Saturday.
Thirteen others have been discharged and 37 are about to leave
the hospital, according to a conference held by the
emergency-meeting headquarters Saturday morning.
"The badly injured will be able to leave the hospital in three
weeks and there will be no complications or negative effect on
their ability to work in the future," said Xu Xinrong, director of
guarding room for serious patients in People's Hospital of Jiangsu
Province, at the conference.
The accident occurred at 6:50 PM Tuesday, when a tank truck
carrying 35 tons of chlorine blew out a tire and rammed into a
cargo truck on the Huai'an section of the Beijing-Shanghai
expressway. The tragedy killed 28 people and lead to the
hospitalization of 350 others.
Rescuers dug a pond at roadside shortly after the accident to
counteract the chlorine with caustic soda. The area has been under
24-hour surveillance ever since. The bulk of clean-up ended Friday
morning.
According to an official in charge of plant protection, the leak
didn't cause crucial damage to the soil nearby. He denied a rumor
that plants would not be able to grow on the affected ground for
years.
The official admitted that leakage damaged more than 1,300
hectares of crops owned by 11 villages nearby.
(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2005)