School illnesses tied to pollution

BEIJING — Chinese families were in an uproar on Monday after a report in the state news media revealed that nearly 500 students at a school in eastern China had developed illnesses, a few as severe as leukemia, possibly because of pollution at a nearby field.

Students and parents at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School had complained since December about pollution in the area, after dozens of children came down with rashes and nosebleeds and a foul stench surrounded the school. But local officials dismissed their concerns, saying that the air, soil and groundwater met national standards.

On Sunday, the government’s powerful national broadcaster, China Central Television, aired a scathing report documenting the illnesses and finding that toxins in the soil and water far exceeded national limits.

The publication of the report suggested that China’s leaders were taking a more aggressive stance toward chemical companies at a time when public anger over environmental pollution is mounting, especially in the aftermath of a high-profile chemical disaster last year that killed 165 people in the port city of Tianjin.

But the incident also underscored the serious gaps that exist in China’s oversight of hazardous materials. While China has made strides in publicizing air and groundwater pollution data in recent years, it still does not provide data on local soil pollution or require companies to publicly list which substances they discharge as waste, a departure from international standards.

Ma Jun, a prominent environmentalist, said the government’s efforts to investigate egregious cases of pollution was a promising step. But he said China still had much more to do to rein in the powerful chemical industry.

“It’s very important for the central government to weigh in on this case,” Mr. Ma said. “I just hope that we won’t stop at these individual cases. We need a comprehensive review.”

In a statement, Greenpeace said the incident showed that China’s management of hazardous chemicals was “dangerously lax.”

On social media and in coffee shops on Monday, Chinese people expressed deep concern about the case. On Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, a page related to the case had drawn more than 30 million views by Monday evening.

Some people drew comparisons to the mismanagement that had led to the blasts in Tianjin last year; others said they were planning to press their children’s schools to conduct tests of soil and water, just to be safe.

In Beijing, the central government promised an investigation. In a statement, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said it “attached great importance to the matter.”

The Changzhou city government said in a statement it had “zero tolerance” for pollution and was taking prompt action.

The case of the Changzhou Foreign Languages School received an unusual amount of attention from the Chinese news media, given tight government controls on what can be reported. Chemical companies, which are major drivers of economic growth and contribute heavily to local government revenues, are often shrouded from criticism.

In a series of investigative reports published over the past few months, Caixin, a well-known magazine, took aim at officials at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School, one of the most prestigious schools in the area, and the companies that appeared to have caused the pollution.

The school, which has about 2,400 students, opened a new 153-acre campus last fall near the site of several former pesticide plants, including Jiangsu Changlong Chemicals Company, which is a subsidiary of one of China’s largest pesticide makers, Shenzhen Noposion Agrochemicals Company.

The reports by Caixin documented how environmental officials had initially deemed the area near the school unfit for construction. Still, the school went forward with the project and later played down the concerns of parents and students who complained about coughs, headaches and rashes.

The Caixin report also quoted former employees of Jiangsu Changlong Chemicals, who said the company had buried toxic waste at the site before it relocated in 2010. The site contained perilous amounts of heavy metals and chemicals. Groundwater samples showed that the amount of chlorobenzene, which is used to make herbicides and can damage the nervous system, liver and kidneys, exceeded the national standard by more than 94,000 times, according to Chinese news reports.

On Sunday, the case gained national prominence when China Central Television aired a nearly 13-minute report on pollution at the school. Of the 641 students who were examined by doctors, 493 were determined to have illnesses, CCTV reported. The illnesses included dermatitis, bronchitis and white blood cell deficiencies, as well as a few cases of lymphoma and leukemia.

The report quoted parents and students who described contaminated water and a smell in the air like rotten duck eggs.

“The water is strange and tastes a bit sour,” a mother of a student at the school said in the report.

“I have leg cramps, pimples, and the skin on my hand is flaky,” a 12-year-old student said.

Mr. Ma, the environmentalist, said the case was a sign of increasing awareness among Chinese people about the hazards of environmental pollution, largely because of the growing popularity of social media. He said it would become increasingly difficult for polluters to escape public scrutiny.

“The old days of being sheltered from public hate have passed,” he said. “It’s time for the industry, especially the chemical industry, to really recognize the fundamental change that is happening.”