62 cases get hospital treatment, but others complain about lack of drugs
More than 60 children from a Gansu township have been confirmed to have 'moderate or severe' lead poisoning as a result of exposure to pollutants from a nearby smelter.
Xinhua yesterday quoted the provincial health department as saying that Centre for Disease Control and Prevention tests had shown 62 children under 14 years old from Shuiyang township's Xinsi and Mouba villages had relatively high levels of lead poisoning.
The department said another 59 children and 12 adults had 'light' lead poisoning or excessive lead in their blood, which could not be defined as 'poisoning'.
More than 2,000 people from the two villages have poured into hospitals for tests since mid-August after a boy from the area was diagnosed with lead poisoning blamed on contamination from a decade-old nonferrous smelting plant.
Hospitals in other regions concluded that most of the people tested, including more than 350 children, had lead poisoning, but local and central government health authorities insisted residents be retested. The first batch of blood samples was sent to Beijing last month.
The results of the tests by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention were more detailed than earlier examinations by doctors in Hui county, who had found lead content above the normal level in as many as 620 children, although most were at a relatively low level.