courtesy; tealeafnation
China's meteoric rise in the world economic theatre has been unsurpassed by any other country. But such indiscriminate drive for success has come at a heavy price.
A decade on, many of China's villages that lay in proximity of fired-coal plants are seeing unusual numbers of cancer cases. A veritable pincushion of occurrences has allowed for a precise mapping of the higher incidences of cancer. And they match the sites of the most polluting coal plants.
A particular aspect observed as far back as 2008 was the presence of arsenic in urine in people that have been exposed to fired-coal pollution. Some of the arsenic found in the body came from consumption of water, but now there is a specific arsenic type that is being found, called 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosime (8OHdG), in urine which is specific to coal burning.
In addition, in many chinese villages there are veritable arsenic poisoning trends. The exposure of high levels of arsenic shows a direct correlation between arsenic poisoning and oxidative DNA damage, thereby causing specific disease associated with DNA corruption.
In some villages cancer rates are skyrocketing. In just one year, there has been an explosion in lead poisoning, from smelting plants, too. Cancer rates too haver surged and have now become the country's chief mortality cause.
Unfortunately much of this has been caused by the speed in which the economic and manufacturing boom has been achieved. China's social awareness of the possibilities of too fast a rate of growth did not always include due diligence in protecting its citizens from the impact of pollution.
The government is now faced with a dire situation: photos of Bejing are circulating worldwide. And most people already knew that the situation there is dire. But it is not just a question of loss of face. Whatever delays have occurred in addressing the pollution problems, China is now having to deal with its consequences at an alarmingly quick pace.
What is even more telling, is that as the government is addressing the problem of pollution in the more eastern, highly industrialized areas, the areas to the west, which are not benefiting of such measures yet, are now becoming part of that ominous map.
In one small village in northeastern Yunan province, villagers are starting to see what are called clusters of cancer occurrences. Entire families are becoming ill. And the culprit is readily observable: the smell of the pollution from nearby industrial parks fill the air.
In fact most villagers recall that their little hamlets were nearly disease free before the industrial plant was built. Now cases are popping up everywhere. Most common among the cancers types are lung and liver. The villagers are convinced that these tumors are caused by pollution.
Most of the pollution is also in the ground water, as the factories dump their waste in nearby rivers and streams. Protests have been met by resistance from authorities, who cite the great economic benefit the industries offer to the area.
The pollution in the air is not less. Most farmers say that their produce, especially fruits are blackened with soot, and mostly rot and wilt on the stem. Most of the villagers refuse to eat what they produce, preferring to sell it instead.
Even though local authorities are monitoring pollution levels, they have little or no enforcement powers. The other problem is corruption and malfeasance. Some factories have put in place systems to clean their waste, but they turn it off to save money, or they secretly dump the waste so as not to incur the cost of disposal.
The government also blames past practices for the present problems. And they are committed, in their words, to cure the problem within the next five years.
But China, with its high incidence of cancer clusters, has in fact created more cancer zones in a shorter time, than any other country in the world.
The Bejing Times however, just printed a map of 'cancer-villages' compiled by the Chinese government. This could signal that higher authorities have finally come to terms with the problem and are eager to address it. The open reporting of such a crucial and delicate issue, seems to be a good step forward.
Partial sourcing: Wash post 2.22.13/Guardian UK 6.6.10/Springer Science 8/2008
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