Cancer epidemic hits China after decades of pollution spark boom in disease
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | February 23, 2013 16:12
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ma Jun, one of China’s leading environmentalists, said the admission was positive development.
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