IN THE latest in a spate of battery-related poisonings, 24 children, ranging in age from nine months to 16, have been hospitalised for lead poisoning caused by unlicensed battery manufacturers in eastern China.
Doctors first detected abnormally high lead levels in the blood of three children in the town of Gaohe in Anhui province last month, prompting authorities to carry out tests on 280 children, Xinhua news agency said.
Local authorities closed the Borui Battery company and another factory it did not name in Anhui province’s Huaining county after tests revealed that at least 200 children had high lead levels.
Among the first to be hospitalised was five-year-old Huang Han. The lead level in his blood reached 330.9 micrograms – just 100 micrograms per litre is enough to impair brain development in children.
“My son is now very cranky and restless. He yells a lot,” Huang Dazhai, the boy’s father, told Xinhua. He had been working outside town before rushing home to take care of his sick son.
Jiang Feng, whose hospitalised daughter was only 14 months old, said: “Most parents in our village are working in cities to support families. Usually, we left the kids with their grandparents.”
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of lead, a key component in the lead-acid batteries needed for the growing number of cars and electric bikes. New cases of lead poisoning regularly pop up around the country, causing outrage where rural pollution is a growing issue.
After the children fell ill, the county’s environment protection bureau had checked out the plant and found that Borui Battery had caused the lead poisoning. It noted that the company had not passed the necessary environmental checks and had been operating illegally.
The factory was shut, as was another unnamed unit near the community following the incident.
Both were just across the street from homes, despite regulations that say battery plants cannot be within a 500m radius of residential communities.
Excessive amounts of lead in the blood can damage the digestive, nervous, and reproductive systems and cause anaemia and convulsions.
Prolonged exposure to excessive levels of lead can stunt growth and slow mental development.
Battery factories have a poor reputation in China and are often linked to serious cases of lead poisoning in children. In July, four children living near a battery plant in the eastern province of Jiangsu were found to be suffering from lead poisoning.
In December 2009 there was a similar incident in Guangdong province, where 25 children living near a battery plant were found to have excessive lead levels in their bloods.