China: Children Poisoned by Lead and Denied Treatment | Human Rights Watch

China: Children Poisoned by Lead and Denied Treatment | Human Rights Watch

Children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood are being refused treatment and returned home to contaminated houses in polluted villages. Parents, journalists, and community activists who dare to speak out about lead are detained, harassed, and ultimately silenced. Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch

(Hong Kong) - Chinese government officials in provinces with high rates of industrial pollution are restricting access to lead testing, withholding and falsifying test results, and denying children treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Family members and journalists seeking information about the problem are intimidated and harassed, Human Rights Watch said. Such actions violate Chinese law and condemn hundreds of thousands of children to permanent mental and physical disabilities.

The 75-page report, "‘My Children Have Been Poisoned': A Public Health Crisis in Four Chinese Provinces," draws on research in heavily lead-contaminated villages in Henan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Hunan provinces. The report documents how, despite increasing regulation and sporadic enforcement targeting polluting factories, local authorities are ignoring the urgent and long-term health consequences of a generation of children continuously exposed to life-threatening levels of lead.

"Children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood are being refused treatment and returned home to contaminated houses in polluted villages," said Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch. "Parents, journalists, and community activists who dare to speak out about lead are detained, harassed, and ultimately silenced."