Eight sintering pots of a smelter company were forced to be
demolished on Saturday as environmental protection authorities
confirmed that they were the source of a lead-related pollution
which sickened several hundred villagers in northwest China's Gansu Province.
Workers used gas welding to split the sintering pots, a main
smelting tool of Huixian County Melting Plant for Colored Metal,
which failed to go through environment-effect evaluation after its
upgrade in 2004. And its waste disposal equipment did not meet
national standards.
The smelter was blamed for sickening more than three hundred
residents in Xinsi and Muba villages whose lead content in the
blood was much higher than normal, many of whom went to the Xijing
Hospital in Xi'an, capital of neighboring Shaanxi Province, 300 kilometers away from
Huixian County, for examinations on blood lead levels.
A four-member team has been dispatched by the Ministry of Health
on Saturday to Huixian County. Together with seven experts from the
provincial health department, they will draft plans to speed the
recovery of the victims, said a Huixian county government
official.
(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2006)