China Relocates 15,000 People After Lead Poisoning, But Plants Stay Open

Chinese officials will move more than 15,000 people away from a lead smelting area in Henan province where more than 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, but will allow the factories to continue operating. Several smelters and lead plants in Jiyuan — including China’s largest — were closed temporarily this summer when protests erupted after children living near similar Chinese smelters tested positive for cadmium and lead. The residents of 10 villages located near lead plants, including one owned by Yuguang Gold and Lead, will now be moved at a cost of 1 billion yuan, or about $150 million, according to Jiyuan’s mayor. Once they are moved, the plant owner will rent their properties and plant trees to serve as a barrier to other villages. The local government just wants “to protect the plant, which pays a great deal of tax every year,” said Huang Zhengmin, whose 5-year-old grandson’s blood tests showed extremely high lead levels. “They don’t care about the life and death of us ordinary people.” Lin Jingxing, of the Chinese Academy of Geological Science, said major studies of soil, water and wind patterns must be conducted before anyone can be sure just how far away from the plants would be safe. The lead industry has boomed across China after pollution concerns caused a collapse elsewhere in the world.