Hundreds of thousands of children in China are suffering permanent mental and physical damage from lead poisoning, yet local officials are limiting blood testing, refusing treatment and covering up the scope of the problem, according to a report by the watchdog group Human Rights Watch.
The report, based on research in heavily lead-contaminated villages in four Chinese provinces, says that many of the children live in poor, polluted villages surrounded by lead smelters and battery factories. Their parents often work in these factories, bringing more lead into their homes on their clothes, boots and hands.
Although Chinese regulators have directed local officials to tighten enforcement of environmental rules, the human rights group says regional authorities in contaminated areas arbitrarily have limited blood testing. Even when tests are conducted, the report says, results often are withheld from the families.
The New York Times reports that, in the past two and a half years, thousands of workers, villagers and children in at least nine of China’s province-level regions have been found to be suffering from toxic levels of lead exposure.
The Times notes that children are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning. High lead levels can damage the brain, kidney, liver, nerves and stomach and, in extreme cases, even cause death.
As the Mayo Clinic explains, medical treatment exists for severe lead poisoning, although it might not be possible to reverse damage that already has occurred. The treatment options include chelation therapy, which involves taking a medication that binds with the lead so that it is excreted in urine.
Yet, according to Human Rights Watch, authorities in China often suggest that children be treated with home remedies, such as eating apples, garlic, milk and eggs.
“The government gave us some garlic and told us to give our grandson extra garlic,” a Shaanxi province grandmother was quoted as telling the report’s researchers. “We asked about medicine, something to make him better. They said they wouldn’t give us any because medicine for lead poisoning doesn’t work.”
Human Rights Watch called on Chinese officials to provide proper health care as well as to shut down factories that don’t meet national emissions standards and to prosecute rogue factory owners.
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Lead from Battery Plants Poisons Children in China
Lead poisoning is not the worst of their problems. China has a huge problem with smoking. If the lead does not get these poor children, their smoking fathers will….
History repeats and it makes no difference if the government is Communist-newvue capitalist or Japanese Big Trading Companies, Profit and the Elite beneficiaries must be protected. May the Dec 21 2012 sweep them all into oblivion!
Why do the families of the leaders not live with their families in the polluted areas ???
These managers should be prosocuted for 1st degree murder !!!!!!!!!!!
This article demonstrates what happens when the government has complete control..which will happen in the medical arena in the uSA if ObamaCare is not overturned. However bad a private corporation is, you can still sue them…but when the government decides there is much less redress. Undoubtedly, the Chinese should be protecting their environment instead of destroying it…but the article also seems to cast doubt on the nutritional remedies
advocated by the Chinese. Perhaps the author should do some more research..and then realize that all those foods are indeed good for detoxification.
It’s odd how the Chinese use poisons, in infant’s milk, toys, pet food. But watching documentaries of how cheap life was taken when Japan invaded and killed more people than Hitler I understand, and when Mao was torturing people or letting them starve by the millions; it’s easier to understand how our standards, which are flaky at best, could be lowered in desperate attempts to economize. But there almost seems to be a piece missing in their souls, judging buy the government’s behavior; at least those in power.
Just like our story with the Computer recycling inside the Federal Prisons Since 1994 we were told by our own USA Goverment Agency that it was safe to recycle computers inside the Federal prison. that they would protect the inmates and workers (staff) lies, cover up. No inspections, no EPA, or OSHA, or air testing until 2010 and they were informed way back in the late 90′s. much sickness and some death. they did not test but a few toxins. Millions of dollars made off the backs of inmates and toxins taken home to our loved ones. No filtration systems set in place, No breathing protections inplace. Peer.org, or progressive magazine.org under computer recycling Toxic chemicals. Freda Cobb.com
Lead test kits are useful products to take home. For the sake of our children’s health and wellness, we need to check if the surfaces in contact with at home are free of contaminants of lead.