The following was kindly forwarded to me by a Leadnetter. Thanks.
Your really know the blood lead levels are high when they talk about diagnosing by symptoms: "Lead poisoning can be diagnosed from a blue line around the gums and in severe cases can cause convulsions, coma and death."
I'd still like to know the name of the company and whether it's Chinese or not.
Elizabeth O'Brien
From an Associated Press article online at MSNBC.com 9/6/06
HUNDREDS SUFFER LEAD POISONING IN CHINA
Latest pollution disaster caused by a smelter in poverty-stricken Gansu
BEIJING - Hundreds of people in northwestern China have been
hospitalized with lead poisoning that was likely caused by pollution
from a nearby smelter, state media and local officials said Wednesday.
The poisonings in two villages in poverty-stricken Gansu province added
to a string of recent pollution disasters in China that have prompted
violent protests in some areas.
The first sign of trouble in the villages of Xinsi and Moba came on Aug.
18, when medical tests showed 10 people had high levels of lead in their
blood, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported.
Health officials conducted checkups and "discovered that almost every
family in the villages had the same kind of problem," or at least 879
residents, the newspaper said. The youngest victim was 5 months old.
"Children started feeling ill and their parents brought them to a local
hospital," an official from Hui county, where the two villages are
located, said by phone. "We suspect that they were sickened by pollution
caused by a lead smelter nearby that discharged waste into the air."
The smelter was shut down and an investigation was under way, the
official said. He refused to give his name or the name of the smelting
company.
For the rest of the article, please follow the link
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14691338/
(if this doesn't work, go to www.msnbc.com, select "world news" from ,
then select "Asia-Pacific")
HUNDREDS SUFFER LEAD POISONING IN CHINA
Latest pollution disaster caused by a smelter in poverty-stricken Gansu
BEIJING - Hundreds of people in northwestern China have been
hospitalized with lead poisoning that was likely caused by pollution
from a nearby smelter, state media and local officials said Wednesday.
The poisonings in two villages in poverty-stricken Gansu province added
to a string of recent pollution disasters in China that have prompted
violent protests in some areas.
The first sign of trouble in the villages of Xinsi and Moba came on Aug.
18, when medical tests showed 10 people had high levels of lead in their
blood, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported.
Health officials conducted checkups and "discovered that almost every
family in the villages had the same kind of problem," or at least 879
residents, the newspaper said. The youngest victim was 5 months old.
"Children started feeling ill and their parents brought them to a local
hospital," an official from Hui county, where the two villages are
located, said by phone. "We suspect that they were sickened by pollution
caused by a lead smelter nearby that discharged waste into the air."
The smelter was shut down and an investigation was under way, the
official said. He refused to give his name or the name of the smelting
company.
For the rest of the article, please follow the link
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14691338/
(if this doesn't work, go to www.msnbc.com, select "world news" from ,
then select "Asia-Pacific")