Hundreds of children seriously ill at ‘toxic school’ in China

Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into what is becoming known as a "toxic school", after nearly 500 students in Jiangsu suffered serious health problems, including cancer, after their school was relocated to site near former chemical plants.

Changzhou Foreign Languages School (CFLS) relocated to its current site in the eastern province in September 2015 and students complained of an "unusual smell" emitting from three former chemical plants nearby. Changzhou is about 100km northwest of Shanghai.

Some 641 students were examined since then, and a total of 493 students at the school have developed blood abnormalities and diseases such as dermatitis, eczema and bronchitis. Some have even been diagnosed with leukaemia and lymphoma, according to a report on the state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

The report featured footage of children with blotches and lesions on the skin. It showed that soil and groundwater in the area was found to contain toxic compounds and heavy metals, with the level of one carcinogen almost 100,000 times the safety limit. One of the three factories used to discharge sewage into a dried-up canal on the site about 100 metres from the school.

Environmental pollution

China has stepped up efforts recently to combat environmental pollution, which has long been seen as the inevitable byproduct of economic expansion, but is increasingly a destabilising social factor.

Parents of the pupils attending the school had suspected for months the contaminated environment was to blame for the rashes, coughs and headaches their children began to develop at the end of last year.

The report cited one employee, who had worked at one of the three factories, Jiangsu Changlong Chemicals Company, for more than 30 years, describing how employees would dispose of contaminated water directly outside the factory and often bury dangerous waste underground.

The programme also quoted Pan Xiaochuan, a professor at the public health school under Peking University, saying that the high number of students being diagnosed with diseases and conditions in such a short space of time could be connected with the heavy pollution levels.

Other experts specialising in environmental issues told CCTV that the environmental assessment ahead of the construction of the school did not look for pesticides, and they also claimed that the builders had used heavily polluted groundwater during the construction process.

There were other remarkable findings in the report. Construction of the school, which cost 310 million yuan (€42.3 million), started seven months before the assessment report was completed.