China’s People’s Daily Explores Health Toll Of Industrial Boom

Workers in Chinese cadmium battery factories are being poisoned by the manufacturing process, and so is the land around the plants, China’s state-controlled People’s Daily says in an article that explores the health impacts of the country’s dizzying industrialization. Exposure to cadmium affects both workers and residents near the factories as the cadmium leaches into the soil and water, causing kidney failure, lung cancer, and bone disease. The manufacture of cadmium batteries is banned in most developed countries because of the process’s toxicity. The newspaper examines other processes harmful to Chinese workers, including the production of tatami mats for Japan. That process uses a clay dust to strengthen the mats and prevent their color from fading. Yet the dust contains up to 30 percent free silica, which can cause black lung disease — one of the most widespread industrial ailments in China, the newspaper said.