Beijing Says New Measures Needed to Fight Lead Poisoning

By SKY CANAVES
BEIJING -- China's environment minister called for new measures to deal with heavy-metal poisoning, following a recent spate of incidents involving mass lead poisoning of children living near lead smelters.
But the government has had little success in past efforts to clean up the industry and faces significant obstacles, such as weak enforcement mechanisms.
Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian called for "powerful measures" to prevent pollution by heavy metals such as lead. "The prevention of heavy metal pollution should be put in a more urgent and more important position," he said, according to a statement posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Mr. Zhou warned that despite China's environmental progress over the past few years, conditions remain severe. "The old environmental problems that have accumulated over time still haven't been resolved, while new issues are emerging continually," Mr. Zhou said.
Enforcement of regulations presents a major challenge. In many regions, officials place a greater emphasis on short-term economic growth than on the long-term impact of pollution.
Over the past month, thousands of children living near smelters have been found to have excessive levels of lead in their blood, resulting in occasionally violent protests and increasing media attention to the issue.
Protests by villagers upset over the lead poisoning of 851 children in northwest China's Shaanxi province led authorities to close the smelting plant responsible for the lead discharges on Aug. 17.
Days later, a larger case of lead poisoning was reported in Hunan province in central China, in which more than 1,300 children under the age of 14 were found to have excessive levels of lead in their blood as a result of the operation of an illegal smelter in the area.
In a third major case, state media reported last week that more than 200 children in an industrial suburb of Kunming, the capital of the southwestern Yunnan province, showed signs of lead poisoning during routine testing of 1,000 children in June through August.
Liu Dakun, director of Yunnan's lead prevention office for children, said that on average 50% to 60% of children under the age of 14 in the province's mining regions suffer lead poisoning. In Kunming, a large and relatively prosperous city, about 30% of 10,000 children tested last year had been poisoned by lead, said Mr. Liu, who attributed most of the exposure to auto emissions.
Children are especially vulnerable to lead exposure because it can affect their mental development. High levels of lead in the body can cause brain, kidney and bone-marrow problems.
Beijing has sent inspectors to the affected areas and pledged stringent measures to deal with the widening scandal, which threatens to mar China's 60th anniversary celebrations on Oct. 1.
Last week, the environmental ministry, along with several other central government departments, approved a plan aimed at tackling heavy-metal pollution. Few details have been made available and it has yet to be passed by the central government.
Environment Minister Zhou called on officials at all levels to respond to environmental incidents, conduct prompt investigations and aid in the restructuring of the industry.
China, the world's top producer of lead, has set a target of phasing out 600,000 tons of outdated smelting capacity this year. However, previous efforts to clean up the industry have failed, and many small smelters are beyond Beijing's reach.
Chao Wenfu, 61 years old, who lives near the shuttered Shaanxi smelter, greeted the news with skepticism. "It is good the central government is issuing such policy, but I'm worried that the local government won't implement it," Mr. Chao said. "They only know how to make money, never paying attention to the health of farmers and whether people live or die."—Kersten Zhang, Sue Feng and Ellen Zhu contributed to this article.
Write to Sky Canaves at sky.canaves@wsj.com