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12-04-2014, 12:02 PM
Water polluted with heavy metal causes Chinese villagers to develop horrific, painful swellings
Villagers in Sahecun suffer abnormal swellings all over their bodies
Swellings are painful, and the people are tired and weak, unable to work
One man was diagnosed as suffering severe cadmium poisoning
Others have been diagnosed with ostealgia - acute pain in the bones
Water and soil in the area polluted due to a lead mine that is now closed
Mine went bankrupt over a decade ago but did not clean up pollution
Many young people have left, but some villagers have nowhere else to go
They still breed fish in ponds in the area, knowing they are contaminated
By MADLEN DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:46 EST, 3 December 2014 | UPDATED: 06:53 EST, 4 December 2014
Chinese villagers are suffering unsightly, painful and swellings all over their bodies as a result of heavy metal poisoning from soil and water.
Villagers in Sahecun village, in southern China, are suffering severe health problems – including aching bones - due to pollution caused by a lead mine that closed more than a decade ago.
Government tests confirmed soaring rates of poisonous metals in the soil and water nine years ago.
But a clean-up operation ordered at the time stopped shortly after, so the area has remained contaminated for years.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/03/23B29D2200000578-2859324-image-a-1_1417623899831.jpg
Villagers from Sahecun, in southern China, are suffering from hideous swellings caused by heavy metal pollution from a mine that closed a decade ago. Huang Guiqiang, 58, said: 'The lumps over my body are incredibly painful, and interspersed occasionally with periods where I can't feel anything at all in my body'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/03/23B29D2B00000578-2859324-image-a-13_1417624098210.jpg
Guiqiang's second oldest brother Huang Fuqiang, 61, also developed the swellings, which left him confined to his bed. The pair's older brother died last year, having been bedridden for 10 years
One of the villagers, Huang Guiqiang, 58, can no longer work due to the swellings.
He said: 'I noticed symptoms at the turn of the century, when I was feeling weak and listless and was no longer able to work.
'The lumps over my body are incredibly painful, and interspersed occasionally with periods where I can't feel anything at all in my body.'
He said he had been helped with the cost of visiting hospital in the nearby city, where he was diagnosed as suffering from severe cadmium poisoning.
Cadmium is toxic metal, which has a destructive impact on most of the body's systems if high levels are ingested.
Since his diagnosis, Huang Guiqiang said little has been done to help treat the condition.
The villagers still breed fish in ponds, knowing that the fish will grow up contaminated.
Huang Guiqiang said: 'What choice do we have. If we don't breed fish, we won't have anything else to eat.'
Guangxi Environment and Geology Research Center found the cadmium content in water in the area was 17.4 times higher than the national standard, CRI English reports.
And the metal content in the region's soil was even higher – at 29.1 times higher than the national standard, the investigation, which was carried out in 2000, found.
Guiqiang's second oldest brother Huang Fuqiang, 61, also began experiencing similar symptoms around the same time, growing a large number of unexplained lumps on his hands and feet, which left him confined to his bed.
The pair's oldest brother, Huang Jinqiang, who was also a sufferer, died last year, having been bedridden by the disease for 10 years.
Others in the village have been diagnosed with ostealgia - a medical condition that results in acute pain in the bones, CRI English reports.
In the 1950s, villagers were given well-paid jobs when Government officials authorised the mining of zinc and lead in the region.
The mine brought money to the area, allowing the villagers to build themselves good homes, roads and schools that would never have been possible before.
For 40 years, locals benefited from the money flowing in to the local economy from the mine, but by the 1990s the mine was exhausted, and was closed down, and the money and the jobs dried up.
Villagers who then tried to return to farming found that their rice fields had been contaminated from the water that leaked from the mine into the irrigation network over their arable land.
Crops struggled to grow, and the food made people sick.
In the end, the only way they could afford to eat was to turn the rice fields into shallow pools where they bred fish.
But these too were infected and have been making locals ill.
Environmental experts sent to the village, which is in Daxin County in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have confirmed the area is severely contaminated as a result of the mining work that went on there.
And despite stripping away contaminated soil and replacing it, the pollution always seeps back to the surface or washes over the new soil every time it rains.
For those left behind with no opportunity to relocate, their bodies are slowly mutating and bending out of shape as a result of disease caused by the pollution.
Most say they do not know exactly what is wrong with them, but suffer horrific lumps and contusions which leave them in pain.
In 2005, the state sanctioned tests on the conditions of soil and water in the region, confirming the widespread contamination caused by the former zinc and lead mining industry.
Although a clean-up was ordered it lasted only a few months before grinding to a halt. Since then the villagers say they have heard nothing.
Now the village is home to only the elderly after much of the younger generation left to look for better and healthier lives in the bigger cities.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2859324/Water-polluted-heavy-metal-causes-Chinese-villagers-develop-horrific-painful-swellings
Villagers in Sahecun suffer abnormal swellings all over their bodies
Swellings are painful, and the people are tired and weak, unable to work
One man was diagnosed as suffering severe cadmium poisoning
Others have been diagnosed with ostealgia - acute pain in the bones
Water and soil in the area polluted due to a lead mine that is now closed
Mine went bankrupt over a decade ago but did not clean up pollution
Many young people have left, but some villagers have nowhere else to go
They still breed fish in ponds in the area, knowing they are contaminated
By MADLEN DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:46 EST, 3 December 2014 | UPDATED: 06:53 EST, 4 December 2014
Chinese villagers are suffering unsightly, painful and swellings all over their bodies as a result of heavy metal poisoning from soil and water.
Villagers in Sahecun village, in southern China, are suffering severe health problems – including aching bones - due to pollution caused by a lead mine that closed more than a decade ago.
Government tests confirmed soaring rates of poisonous metals in the soil and water nine years ago.
But a clean-up operation ordered at the time stopped shortly after, so the area has remained contaminated for years.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/03/23B29D2200000578-2859324-image-a-1_1417623899831.jpg
Villagers from Sahecun, in southern China, are suffering from hideous swellings caused by heavy metal pollution from a mine that closed a decade ago. Huang Guiqiang, 58, said: 'The lumps over my body are incredibly painful, and interspersed occasionally with periods where I can't feel anything at all in my body'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/03/23B29D2B00000578-2859324-image-a-13_1417624098210.jpg
Guiqiang's second oldest brother Huang Fuqiang, 61, also developed the swellings, which left him confined to his bed. The pair's older brother died last year, having been bedridden for 10 years
One of the villagers, Huang Guiqiang, 58, can no longer work due to the swellings.
He said: 'I noticed symptoms at the turn of the century, when I was feeling weak and listless and was no longer able to work.
'The lumps over my body are incredibly painful, and interspersed occasionally with periods where I can't feel anything at all in my body.'
He said he had been helped with the cost of visiting hospital in the nearby city, where he was diagnosed as suffering from severe cadmium poisoning.
Cadmium is toxic metal, which has a destructive impact on most of the body's systems if high levels are ingested.
Since his diagnosis, Huang Guiqiang said little has been done to help treat the condition.
The villagers still breed fish in ponds, knowing that the fish will grow up contaminated.
Huang Guiqiang said: 'What choice do we have. If we don't breed fish, we won't have anything else to eat.'
Guangxi Environment and Geology Research Center found the cadmium content in water in the area was 17.4 times higher than the national standard, CRI English reports.
And the metal content in the region's soil was even higher – at 29.1 times higher than the national standard, the investigation, which was carried out in 2000, found.
Guiqiang's second oldest brother Huang Fuqiang, 61, also began experiencing similar symptoms around the same time, growing a large number of unexplained lumps on his hands and feet, which left him confined to his bed.
The pair's oldest brother, Huang Jinqiang, who was also a sufferer, died last year, having been bedridden by the disease for 10 years.
Others in the village have been diagnosed with ostealgia - a medical condition that results in acute pain in the bones, CRI English reports.
In the 1950s, villagers were given well-paid jobs when Government officials authorised the mining of zinc and lead in the region.
The mine brought money to the area, allowing the villagers to build themselves good homes, roads and schools that would never have been possible before.
For 40 years, locals benefited from the money flowing in to the local economy from the mine, but by the 1990s the mine was exhausted, and was closed down, and the money and the jobs dried up.
Villagers who then tried to return to farming found that their rice fields had been contaminated from the water that leaked from the mine into the irrigation network over their arable land.
Crops struggled to grow, and the food made people sick.
In the end, the only way they could afford to eat was to turn the rice fields into shallow pools where they bred fish.
But these too were infected and have been making locals ill.
Environmental experts sent to the village, which is in Daxin County in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have confirmed the area is severely contaminated as a result of the mining work that went on there.
And despite stripping away contaminated soil and replacing it, the pollution always seeps back to the surface or washes over the new soil every time it rains.
For those left behind with no opportunity to relocate, their bodies are slowly mutating and bending out of shape as a result of disease caused by the pollution.
Most say they do not know exactly what is wrong with them, but suffer horrific lumps and contusions which leave them in pain.
In 2005, the state sanctioned tests on the conditions of soil and water in the region, confirming the widespread contamination caused by the former zinc and lead mining industry.
Although a clean-up was ordered it lasted only a few months before grinding to a halt. Since then the villagers say they have heard nothing.
Now the village is home to only the elderly after much of the younger generation left to look for better and healthier lives in the bigger cities.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2859324/Water-polluted-heavy-metal-causes-Chinese-villagers-develop-horrific-painful-swellings