Chemical leak into China’s Yangtze sparks alert

SHANGHAI, February 8 2012(Reuters): Shanghai authorities are on alert after a chemical leak polluted the Yangtze River, the main source of water for China’s most populous city, although there appeared to be no health threats, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.Officials in Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province said phenol, an acid compound used to make nylon and detergents, was found in its water source last week. The newspaper said it may have been caused by a leak from a South Korean ship. According to the Shanghai Daily, Jiangsu officials said the pollution did not pose a health threat to people. But Chen Wei, a director at Shanghai’s environmental protection bureau, said the city was ready to shut its main reservoir at the mouth of the Yangtze if abnormal levels of chemicals were detected. Bottled drinking water in Zhenjiang and neighbouring cities had been sold out as residents reported a bad smell from tap water, the newspaper said.
A cancer-causing cadmium discharge from a mining company polluted a long stretch of two rivers in southern China last month, prompting officials to warn some 3.7 million people of Liuzhou in the Guangxi region to avoid drinking water from the river, state media reported. Pollution as well food safety are hot topics in China, where numerous crackdowns on the country’s food sector have had little effect as it continues to be beset by poisoning and toxin scandals that have shaken consumer confidence. In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 became ill from powdered milk laced with melamine, an industrial chemical added to low quality or diluted milk to fool inspectors by giving misleadingly high readings for protein levels. Beijing has repeatedly promised to clean up pollution of waterways by toxic runoff from factories and farms — a problem that is pervasive throughout the country. But it often fails to match rhetoric with resources to enforce mandates as local officials put economic development ahead of environmental protection. In September, children in the Kangqiao area of Shanghai were found to have ultra-high levels of lead in their blood during medical checks. Residents in Kangqiao had said at least 10 children have been hospitalised due to the high levels of lead in their blood.