Team probes lead poisoning in S. China
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A specialist medical team arrived in Heyuan, a mountainous city in south China's Guangdong province, on Tuesday to help treat people suffering from lead poisoning.
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Parents and their children wait in Guangzhou Children's Hospital in Guangzhou, capital city of South China's Guangdong province, on Sunday. Dozens of children from villages in the local Linjiang township were brought to the hospital to check the lead content in their blood. [Photo: New Express Daily] |
All the victims are from Daling village in the Linjiang township of Zijin county under the administration of Heyuan. Daling village, which has a total of 329 registered households, is located near the Sunnway Battery Co Ltd, the company suspected of being responsible for the lead poisoning.
Health authorities have collected 1,433 blood samples so far. As of Monday night, the lead content of blood sample from 45 people, 44 children and an adult in Heyuan city, were found to exceed the national standard.
Some of the children have been sent to Guangzhou Children's Hospital in the provincial capital where medical technologies and conditions are much better for treatment. But the hospital has refused to reveal details.
Peng Jianwen, the acting mayor of Heyuan, said his city's public health department and hospitals would do what they can to help treat the patients.
"All the patients have now been sent to hospitals and they will all have free medical treatment," Peng said.
