China factories forming a deadly cancer cocktail for communities

Guardian - China's 'cancer villages' reveal dark side of economic boom
"China appears to have produced more cancer clusters in a few decades than the rest of the world ever had," he notes.

Such stories have become much more common in China in recent years as breakneck economic growth increasingly takes its toll on the nation's health.

Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation's biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80% since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier.

While the government insists it is cleaning up pollution far faster than other nations at a similar dirty stage of development, many toxic industries have simply been relocated to impoverished, poorly regulated rural areas.

Chinese farmers are almost four times more likely to die of liver cancer and twice as likely to die of stomach cancer than the global average, according to study commissioned by the World Bank. The domestic media is increasingly filled with reports of "cancer villages" - clusters of the disease near dirty factories. ... Last year, investigative journalist Deng Fei, posted a widely circulated Google map showing more than 100 "cancer villages". More recent reports suggest the number could be over 400.

"Before the factories were built, there was no cancer. We were free of strange diseases," he said, grimacing at the nauseating fumes. "Now, we hear every year that this person or that person has cancer, especially lung and liver cancer. My aunt never drank alcohol or smoked. Her cancer was completely caused by pollution."

Everyone the Guardian spoke to at the village knew of someone who had died of cancer and most blamed the toxins that flowed from the chemical factories into the nearby Nanpan river and ground water supply.

Farmers said they have no other source of water for their crops and animals. Goat herders said a tenth of their animals had died.

The impact may well have spread into the human food chain. Wang Qingdi, a peach farmer who lives next to the chemical factory, said her crops were ruined by contaminated water and air, but she still sold them at the market because she had no other source of income. - Read more fromGuardian

ikesolem:China's lack of pollution regulations, and the resulting lower production costs, are viewed as part of its comparative advantage over U.S. manufacturing in the eyes of modern free trade enthusiasts. China, they'll tell you, is better at producing cheap goods in large quantities, so naturally production has moved to China, with benefits for all.

However, if you take all the external costs into account - the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States and the resulting regional economic stagnation, as well as the increased cancer and respiratory disease incidence in China - then the deal starts looking like a losing proposition for both countries, from any angle.
 
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