Originally published July 26 2005
China's prosperity comes at poisonous price
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
China is known for its size and growth, but David J. Lynch of the Gannett News Service notes that the country's unbridled advancement has come at the terrible cost of heavily polluted rivers and air. Officials say the environment is getting ready to "bite back."
Even the Petro China station, boasting 30 gasoline pumps, reflects a sense of abundance.
But in this corner of northern China, about 60 miles east of Beijing, prosperity has come at a fearful cost.
Dozens of local chemical factories - makers of toxins including sulfuric acid - disgorge wastewater directly into the Feng Chan river, which is black as ink and clotted with debris.
Another nearby canal is so discolored, locals call it "xiao hong he," or "little red river."
Decades of such pollution have allowed industrial poisons to leach into groundwater, contaminating drinking supplies and leading to a rash of cancers, residents say.
In this village, where the air has a distinctive sour odor, the rate of cancer is more than 18 times the national average.
"The water is terrible," says Li Baoqi, 41, a veterinary medicine salesman.
No country has lifted more people out of poverty faster than modern China.
But in its pell-mell rush to create a "xiaokang," or well-off society, Beijing is sacrificing its environment and public health on an altar of unbridled commerce.
"The environment is beginning to bite back," says Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations.
They began complaining to government officials about their water five years ago, when the first batch of unexplained cancers appeared.
... It would be a very hard decision by the local government to close them all down," says Wang Canfa, director of the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims in Beijing.
A list of those who've died Villagers have compiled a list of 261 people who have died in Xiditou and Liukuaizhuang since 1999; it bears the fingerprints of relatives who provided the information.
Because some of the people died in their 70s and 80s, not all of the deaths likely resulted from pollution.
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