Rash of Arsenic Accidents in China      

Since early 2008, there have been six arsenic pollution accidents in China. This information was released at a meeting jointly convened by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Supervision, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, State Administration of Work Safety and State Electricity Regulatory Commission on April 14th.

Wave of arsenic releases   

The first five arsenic pollution accidents were in Dushan county of Guizhou province, Chenxi county of Hunan province, Hechi city of Guangxi autonomous region, Yangzong Lake in Yunnan province and Dasha River in Henan province. The latest, the only one so far in 2009, was in Picang Floodway, at the juncture of Shandong province and Jiangsu province.
    On January 23rd, 2008, the State Environmental Protection Administration announced that at the end of 2007, the Ruifeng Mining Co., Ltd. in Dushan county, Guizhou province discharged 1 900 tons of arsenic wastewater directly into the Duliu River, polluting the lower reaches of the river and leaving 17 people with arsenic poisoning symptoms to varying degrees.    
    Also in late January, the groundwater of some villages in Chenxi county, Huaihua city, Hunan province was polluted with arsenic discharged from a plant. On January 26th, the official figure released by the Huaihua government showed that 73 people were suffering from arsenic poisoning in various degrees. However, according to the investigation by some civil societies and local media, the actual poisoning figure would be much higher.
    Since June 2008, the test results for arsenic concentration in Yangzong Lake of Yunnan province have constantly showed abnormal. By the end of July, the average arsenic concentration across the whole lake even hit 0.116 mg/L with the water quality lower than Grade five. Nearly 30 square kilometers of open water was polluted with arsenic. The Environmental Protection Department of Yunnan province verified that the pollution source was Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. In violation of state regulations, the company neither built wastewater treatment facilities, nor provided any seepage control, so the arsenic pollutants that had accumulated over several years gradually leaked and released to the groundwater, causing serious arsenic pollution of the water in Yangzong Lake. The company was ordered to stop production on July 16th, 2008, and was then closed down by the government the following September.    
    In October 2008, 450 villagers in Hechi city, Guangxi province were suffering from excessive arsenic exposure due to an overflow of arsenic-containing wastewater from Jinhai Metallurgy Chemical Company. Among them, four people were diagnosed with light poisoning. (CCR2009 No.30)   
    From July to October in 2008, Chengcheng Chemical Co. Ltd in Minquan county, Henan province illegally expanded its production scale, purchased ores with high arsenic content and dumped the wastewater into the Dasha River, thus causing large scale trans-provincial arsenic pollution. In the accident, over six million cubic meters of water was polluted with the arsenic content in water - four times the safety standard.    
    In January 2009, arsenic emissions from Shandong Hongri Acron Chemical Joint Stock Co. Ltd., severely polluted two rivers located downstream of the company - the Dasha River, at the juncture of Henan and Anhui provinces, and Picang Floodway, hundreds of miles away on the border of Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. On January 5th, the water's arsenic concentration in the floodway's eastern trans-provincial border (Shandong and Jiangsu) section was 40 times the safety limit while the measurement at the mouth of the floodway was still 6 times the standard.    
    According to the "Standards for Drinking Water Quality" (GB5749-2006), jointly released by the Ministry of Health and the National Standardization Management Committee, and in effect since July 1st, 2007, arsenic concentration should be limited to 0.01 mg/L at most in drinking water nationwide and 0.05 mg/L at most in direct drinking water in rural areas.

China strengthens environmental protection in 2009    

In 2008, China investigated and prosecuted over 15 000 cases of environmental illegality, rectified the vast majority of enterprises violating environmental laws, and forcefully closed down many backward production capacities including small paper mills. In addition, the special inspection of sewage treatment plants and refuse landfills, and the centralized program to recondition key water basins have achieved some results.
    In light of the past year's frequent outbreaks of arsenic pollution, China will carry out intensive special inspections of arsenic-related industries and also the high-energy-consumption steel industry in 2009. Besides these two special inspections, said the Environmental Protection Department, the 2009 special environmental protection action will, at the same time, strictly guard against blind investments nationwide under the pretext of expanding domestic demand as well as a new round of high energy-consuming, high pollution and small scale redundant construction. It will also continue making efforts to deal with violations of environmental laws in urban sewage treatment plants and refuse landfills.