missouri ghost town poisoned by toxic waste

In May 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan province claimed almost 70,000 lives, according to official figures, though headlines were dominated by the 5,335 students buried in so-called “tofu schools,” which parents alleged were built shoddily owing to corner-cutting by venal officials. In a nation inured to public-health scandals, special opprobrium is reserved for those where children are the primary victims, perhaps unsurprisingly for a society that until recently was bound by the one-child policy.

“The tragedy that has occurred in Changzhou shows just how dangerously lax China’s hazardous chemical management is,” she said in a statement. Read More: China’s Food-Safety Problems Go Deeper Than Pet Treatsįormer employees at the closed factories have since admitted to discharging untreated waste into waterways, according to CCTV, including a now dried canal only 100 m from the current school, and burying toxic chemicals nearby to save time and money.Īccording to Ada Kong, toxics campaign manager for Greenpeace East Asia, that the school had already claimed to have solved the pollution problem points to gaping holes in China’s treatment and disposal of toxic substances. That soil was ordered to be buried and the school reopened the next month after another probe gave the all clear. In January, the school ended the semester early after pupils repeatedly fell ill, and tests found toxic soil in the vicinity. However, a separate survey in 2012 found dangerous amounts of toxic substances, including chlorobenzene levels that were 78,899 times safe levels in soil and 94,799 times those permitted in groundwater, as well as a cocktail of heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead. That document did not find anything particularly untoward, other than the ground water was unfit for use - the case in 80% of Chinese wells.

The CCTV broadcast described how the school relocated to new 153-acre premises in September, though permission for building work was granted seven months before a safety assessment was completed.

Missouri ghost town poisoned by toxic waste