Hundreds of pupils at school near toxic site in east China fall ill, some with cancer, state TV reports
For months, parents with children attending the Changzhou Foreign Language School in Jiangsu province suspected something was wrong with the air, soil and water at the new campus. Their fears have proven horribly true, with nearly 500 teens developing serious health problems
Hundreds of teenagers developed serious health problems, with some diagnosed with cancer, after their school in east China’s Jiangsu province was relocated beside a former site for chemical plants, state television reported on Sunday.
Soil and groundwater in the area was found to contain toxic compounds and heavy metals, with the level of one carcinogen almost 100,000 times the safety limit, according to China Central Television.
Parents of the pupils attending the Changzhou Foreign Language School had suspected for months the contaminated environment was to blame for the rashes, coughs and headaches their children began to develop at the end of last year.
CCTV said one of the three factories used to discharge sewage into a dried-up canal on the site about 100 metres from the school.
Parents had demanded the pupils be moved to a safer area, but the school management and local education authorities refused. Still, officials ended the autumn semester earlier than usual in January.
According to the CCTV report, 641 pupils underwent hospital medical checks, which revealed that 493 teens had health problems, including abnormalities in their blood and thyroid, bronchitis and in some cases lymphoma and leukaemia.