China Investigates Lead Pollution in Several Provinces      

As of September 9th, 851 children in Fengxiang county of Shaanxi province have been detected to have excessive lead content in their blood. They all live in villages nearby a smelting plant called Lead and Zinc Smelting Co., Ltd. of Dongling Group in Changqing town, Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province. Among them, 166 have been hospitalized.
   Dongling Group set up this smelting plant in Fengxiang county in 2003 and built a 100 000 t/a lead and zinc smelting project and a 700 000 t/a coking project there in 2006. According to the company's records, from July 2008 to July 2009, it has discharged wastewater and exhaust gas with lead content exceeding the related state standard for three times. The average annual lead emission of the smelting plant was about 1.11 tons. At present, this company has shut down all of its lead smelting capacity.   
   The warning of the incident has spread throughout China. In Guangxi region Henan and Hunan provinces, the environmental protection departments have recently carried out environmental investigations on local lead smelting enterprises. Henan province even launched an intensive investigation on the emissions of all local chemical industry. Since August 24th, 2009, except for three large smelters, all other lead-smelting enterprises in Henan have been shut down to receive investigations on their possible lead pollution. The total capacity suspended is estimated to be at least 400 000 t/a, of which 50% is small and outdated capacity.
   According to related data, in the first half of 2009, China's output of lead reached 1.6582 million tons, increasing 14.8% from the first half of 2008. Of which the lead output of Henan province reached 601 000 tons, ranking first in China and rising by 9.13% year on year. And the lead output of Hunan province was 303 500 tons in the first half, ranking second in China and increasing 43.95% year on year.