EDIT
"Huizhou Super Golden Peak in the industrial district is one of the factories owned by the battery branch of GP industries listed in Hong Kong. A cadmium poisoning incident in May and June last year had tremendous impact locally: It drew great attention to high-ranking city leaders and to a well-known central TV station that reported the case. In order to maintain a financially viable environment, city leaders urged the factory to improve working conditions as soon as possible and to develop a compensation deal for injured workers. Workers involved were reportedly very disappointed in the deal.
In 2002, a worker from the factory felt weakness and soreness in her lower back after giving birth. She was told by a doctor her problem was intervertebral disc protrusion. After reading an article on the hospital's bulletin board that said high levels of heavy metals, including cadmium, can cause skeletal distortion, she was scared, because she was in contact with cadmium daily at work, having worked there more than seven years, 30 days a month, 12 hours a day. She paid for a health checkup in the Guangdong occupational disease prevention and control hospital. The exam showed her blood cadmium level exceeded the standard, so the doctor prescribed a cadmium elimination treatment. Then she wondered: "How is this affecting my baby?" She presented her health results to the factory, but they were ignored. When another laborer working in the power room appeared to have similar symptoms, all the laborers in the factory became very concerned. So the factory arranged for workers to be checked for cadmium levels in blood and urine. The results indicated cadmium exceeded the standards for nearly 100 workers. However, workers were so worried about the incident, that they paid for checkups at different clinics, where the results showed significantly higher cadmium levels than from the factory clinic. The factory issued a statement that it would not recognize results from different clinics.
EDIT
After the cadmium poisoning incident in Huizhou Super GP, another factory, Xianjin Battery Factory, also owned by GP, found more than 300 workers with blood cadmium levels exceeding the standard. When some workers developed symptoms such as loss of mobility in the arms and legs, lower back pain and backache, dizziness and headaches, they asked to obtain an occupational disease certificate and demanded that the factory take care of their treatments. Instead, the factory asked them to resume work as soon as possible.
According to the law of occupational disease prevention and control, if the disease is diagnosed as suspicious, harmfully suspicious, or mild, the person can be treated as a patient. If the workers can't obtain an occupational disease certificate, they are not able to apply for the work ability appraisal and therefore they can't obtain any compensation. On July 5, 2004, the GP group issued a clarification statement in which it claimed that this incident was not caused by industrial cadmium poisoning, and emphasized that the factory met the international requirements in terms of security, health, environment and other areas; every worker accepted training when they were hired; the workers were provided information about the harmful effects of cadmium, and so on."
EDIT
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-4-7/27690.html