Lead poisoning sickens 600 kids in China

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING — More than 600 children have been sickened with lead poisoning in a northern Chinese province where authorities shut a smelter earlier this week thought to have caused the contamination, state media reported.

More than 80 percent of the 731 children living in the two villages near the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in Shaanxi province have tested positive for lead poisoning, nearly double the number reported earlier this week, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday.

It said lead levels in children were as high as 506 milligrams per liter of liter of blood — more than 10 times the level considered safe by China.

Families who lived near the factory began bringing in sick children to hospitals and clinics in July and blamed the smelting factory for contaminating nearby soil, air and the area's water supply, the report said.



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[ccharles000]

1. sad