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The Associated Press reports that three
people have died and seventeen others required medical treatment after they
were exposed to bags of a toxic chemical illegally dumped by a factory in
eastern China, the local government said. Four of the people sickened were children
who played near the chemical, 2,4-dinitrophenol — a poison used in scientific
research and in manufacturing various chemicals, explosives and pesticides,
according to a statement by the government in Dongyang, a city 250 kilometers southwest
of Shanghai. The case is typical of many in China, where local enforcement of
safety standards remains lax despite repeated pledges by the central government
to ensure better controls. Investigators were holding four people alleged to be
responsible for the poisonings, and city officials pledged to tighten waste
disposal controls. A preliminary probe found that chemicals were dumped into
plastic bags by a local chemicals factory and illegally passed on to a garbage
collector, who then sold the bags to another waste collector. The three people
killed were all transporting the bags when they fell ill, the government
statement said. It was unclear why the waste collectors bought the chemicals or
if they knew what was in the bags. But migrants scraping out a livelihood by
selling waste to the country''s thriving recycling industry scrounge for
whatever they can find, without any protective gear or other safety
precautions. Control of hazardous chemicals is a chronic problem in China,
where workshops and factories have sprung up all over the countryside. Decades
of industrialization have left many areas polluted with chemicals and heavy
metals dumped by factories that dumped waste and effluent with impunity. Officials
face growing public anger over safety scandals in which children have often
suffered most, such as the recent discovery of clusters of severe lead
poisoning involving hundreds of children.
