Pollution: Cancer Epidemic

Cancer epidemic hits China after decades of pollution spark boom in disease

By PETER SIMPSON

PUBLISHED: 02:06 GMT, 23 February 2013 | UPDATED: 02:06 GMT, 23 February 2013

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Decades of reckless pollution have spawned a string of toxic ‘cancer 

villages’, the Chinese government admitted for the first time yesterday.

In a rare admission, the Environment Ministry accepted the country’s 30-year breakneck industrial boom and lax laws had caused ‘many’ environmental disasters and led to a spike in cancer-related deaths.

'In recent years, toxic and hazardous chemical pollution has caused many environmental disasters, cutting off drinking water supplies, and even leading to severe health and social problems such as "cancer villages",' the ministry said in its damning report.

Toxic cocktail: A woman wears a mask in Beijing, a city which is badly affected by smog and forced to issue regular health warnings for residents to stay indoors to avoid 'hazardous' air quality 

Factories in rural communities spout a deadly toxic cocktail and poison the soil, ground water and air for hundreds of villages and millions of people.

Major cities - including the capital Beijing - are also badly affected by smog and forced to issue regular health warnings for residents to stay indoors to avoid ‘hazardous’ air quality.

 

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Cancer is now the number one killer in China and one in four Chinese now die from the disease - marking an 80 per cent rise in the mortality rate from cancer over the past 30 years.

The concession that the economic boom has a dark side coincided with the announcement of a five-year plan to tackle the problem, which includes a clampdown on the use and production of 58 types of toxic chemicals.

Notably, the report comes amid a growing public outcry over the toll pollution is taking on public health especially from the environment-conscious middle class.

Damning report: Factories in rural communities spout a deadly toxic cocktail and poison the soil, ground water and air for hundreds of villages and millions of people

China’s secretive ruling Communist government has spent years burying poor pollution statistics and suppressing protests against the worst factories turning countless communities into death traps. 

‘The document warns that China faces a grave situation in terms of chemical pollution control, citing inadequate pollution risk control by enterprises, a lack of systematic policies to restrain the making and use of highly toxic and dangerous chemicals and authorities’ insufficient pollution monitoring and supervision capabilities,’ state news agency Xinhua said.

Ma Jun, one of China’s leading environmentalists, said the admission was positive development. 

'The recognition of the existence of problems is the very first step and the precondition for us to really start solving these problems,' he said.

He said the government’s acknowledgement of ‘cancer villages’ was part of an ongoing shift towards greater environmental transparency to appease public anger which threatens stability.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283212/Cancer-epidemic-hits-China-decades-pollution-spark-boom-disease.html#ixzz2LnVUgxqf 
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