Recently, when the news that chromium slag wastewater from Qujing, Yunnan Province may pollute the source of the Pearl River was reported by the media, it was followed by the residents' worries and anxieties about water quality safety in big cities along the Yangtze River. The local environmental protection department took urgent action to follow up and release dynamic news, all in order to reassure residents, but besides that, we have another question. In the face of chromium slag pollution, will residents living near chemical plants be affected by chromium pollution? Grazing is strictly prohibited near the chromium slag yard, and villagers with advanced lung cancer eat more than 50 bedbugs raw every day according to the folk prescription to alleviate their illness. A group of photos released by the media today have aggravated people's concerns about the local ecological environment and residents' health. Meanwhile, the media quoted villagers as saying that at least six to seven people die of cancer every year in xinglong village, near the chemical plant. So what is the actual situation?
On August 16, CCTV reporters went to the local area to learn about the situation:
The distance next to this stacking point is about tens of meters, which is the site of this chemical plant. Then xinglong village is in the southwest of this dump and this chemical field, with a total distance of about two kilometers.
Villagers in xinglong village 1:
A lot. How many people don't know, but there are many. I'm afraid there will be thirty or forty people.
Villagers in xinglong village 2:
It will be slower and slower to set up a factory from a chemical plant.
Villagers in xinglong village 3:
Intestinal cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer. Of the four people I know, three are dead.
Faced with different opinions, the staff of the local health department issued a copy of their statistical data for us.
Zhang Xin, Deputy Director of luliang county Center for Disease Control and Prevention: We (investigated) for nine years from 2002 to 20 10. After the general survey, there were 14 cancer patients.
Luliang county residents:
They looked for it too many times and got a response. Do you think your cancer is related to chromium in chemical plants? Take out the evidence and take out the test report. Are the villagers capable of doing this?
In fact, it was not after the chromium slag pollution incident was reported that we paid attention to xinglong village, which was also reported by the media a year ago. So in such a long time, have people in the village ever reported the problem about the relationship between cancer and pollution to the relevant departments?
Xinglong village population profile: xinglong village has a total population of 950 households with 3,563 people. Some things I knew before were like this. The disease was reflected by the masses. However, today, after re-verification, the disease was actually put forward by a member of luliang county CPPCC at the local CPPCC meeting in May 2007, which subsequently attracted the attention of the competent authorities. However, in the course of these years, the health and environmental protection departments only made investigations, but failed to educate, guide and explain the masses, which led to some people's panic to some extent. When we interviewed in the village this afternoon, most people said that there were many people suffering from cancer in the village, but how many were there? The opinions of the masses are also different, some say a few, some say thirty or forty, and some take an evasive attitude. When we interviewed the leaders of the local health bureau later, they said that they had distributed some publicity materials to the masses, but did not do a good job of one-on-one explanation.
The local survey was conducted in May 2007, and it was not until a representative presented it at the local CPPCC meeting that luliang county Health Bureau organized personnel to conduct the survey in xinglong village. One is to do retrospective epidemiological investigation. The other is to test domestic water. The latest retrospective epidemiological survey was conducted in June this year, and water quality testing was conducted in May this year. According to the investigation report provided by luliang county Health Bureau, from 2002 to 2065,438+00, there were 65,438+04 cancer patients diagnosed in hospitals above the county level in xinglong village, of which 65,438+065,438+0 died. Among them, the oldest is 77 years old and is still alive. Lin, the youngest, was 9 years old, suffering from leukemia and died in 2009. In addition, the detection of drinking water shows that the content of chromium in drinking water in xinglong village is less than 0.04 mg/L through the detection of chromaticity, turbidity, iron, chromium and other indicators 18. Then, in fact, the local authorities did not give more guidance or help in the treatment of mass diseases. Regarding whether there is a necessary connection between cancer and chemical plants, the director of the local health bureau told us that they didn't conduct a special investigation, so it's difficult to draw a conclusion. However, we collected such information in the interview, that is, around xinglong village, besides Lvliang Heping Chemical Plant, there are also some factories such as paper mills, fertilizer plants and zinc plants.
Who is responsible for the pollution of "cancer villages" by chromium slag?
In the eyes of some officials, pollution can be paid with money, and the lives injured by pollution can be "discounted". It is this development thinking that "money is not life" that makes them neglect the supervision of polluting enterprises, the management of chromium slag piles and the protection of affected villagers, which makes the problems accumulate, brew, deteriorate and erupt day by day, and finally forms the pollution mess in front of them.
Is there a connection between "cancer villages" and chromium slag? What role did the chemical plants and paper mills around the village play in the process of villagers' health deterioration? There is no answer yet. However, there is no doubt that chemical plants and chromium slag have become lingering fears and nightmares of Xinglong villagers: drinking polluted river water will lead to the death or illness of cattle and sheep, and rice fields were once seriously polluted, so people bought mineral water to drink. ...
From the medical point of view, heavy metal pollution is likely to be a factor inducing cancer, which has been verified by many heavy metal pollution incidents in the past. As far as xinglong village is concerned, there are not only cancer cases, but also various practical difficulties brought by chromium slag, which makes it even more necessary to investigate the impact of chromium slag pollution on local ecology and people's health, especially the relationship with cancer. The health risk and realistic harm caused by pollution should also be an important part of the investigation of chromium slag pollution, which requires the timely intervention of medical institutions. Unfortunately, however, there are no medical experts in the pollution investigation team.
Just as the harm of chromium slag pollution was not caused in one day, the development of cancer villages's illness also had a process. Over the past nine years, villagers in xinglong village have petitioned 1000 times. It was not until 2007 that local CPPCC members filed a petition at the CPPCC meeting, which attracted the attention of the competent authorities. However, the investigation conclusions of the relevant departments have not alleviated the anxiety of the villagers, and the key issue of whether there is an inevitable connection between cancer and chromium residue is still a confused account.
In Xinglong Village Committee of Xiaobaihu Town, which is adjacent to the factory, Chang Xiaoqiao, a villager who once served as secretary of the village branch, told reporters that livestock did not dare to be put into the river, many villagers got sick inexplicably, and more than 30 people got cancer. As long as they drink the river, cattle and sheep will get sick or die. In 2008, more than 3,000 mu of paddy fields in the village committee were seriously polluted, with rotten roots, rotten seedlings and even dead. After negotiation, the chemical plant paid a part, but the amount was very small.
Chang Xiaoqiao said: "Last year, most villagers could drink water from another nearby river, but they still used polluted well water for laundry and cooking. This year is dry and dry, and there is no water in that river. " Wang Luxian, a 47-year-old villager in the second group of xinglong village Xincun, has a father with lung cancer. He said, "Now we buy mineral water to drink. But cooking still needs well water. " He told reporters that the chemical plant is located in the upper reaches of the village. Since the completion of 1989, the water body of Nanpanjiang River has been seriously polluted. In 2008, the family got more than 8,000 yuan in compensation from the chemical plant, and in 2009, they also paid part of it. The whole village Committee petitioned 1 more than 1,000 people. "The leader of the Environmental Protection Bureau said that if you lose money, don't pursue it."
An expert from Yunnan CDC said that he was very concerned about the chromium slag pollution incident, but the investigation team did not let the provincial CDC intervene. Although it has been reported before, the health problems of women in some villages at the source of the Pearl River are worrying. As for the contact with many chemical enterprises at the source of the Pearl River, there is no conclusion for the time being.
In fact, in recent years, the media has repeatedly reported the pollution of Nanpanjiang River. For example, in June 2009, the Leidatan Reservoir in Nanpanjiang suddenly turned black, killing 569 tons of fish, and 12 farmers suffered heavy losses; 20 10 at the beginning of June, 20 tons of fry released by farmers died again in large numbers, and farmers lost all their money.
Internationally, hexavalent chromium is listed as one of the eight most harmful chemicals to human body and is recognized as a carcinogen. In China, chromium-containing wastes are listed in the national hazardous waste list. A professional told reporters that chromium slag is extremely toxic because it is rich in hexavalent chromium, and it is extremely soluble in water. Under the scouring of rain, it is easy to flow into rivers, seriously polluting water sources and soil.
In the Technical Specification for Environmental Protection of Chromium Slag Pollution Control issued by the former State Environmental Protection Administration, the stacking, excavation, transportation and storage of chromium slag were strictly regulated, including that the chromium slag stacking place should be equipped with special management personnel, and any operation in the chromium slag stacking place must be approved by the management personnel; Measures should be taken to prevent rainwater runoff from entering the chromium slag stacking place; The transportation route of chromium slag should avoid environmentally sensitive areas such as residential areas and water source protection areas. During transportation, it should be packed as well as possible, and the management measures of hazardous waste transfer manifest should be implemented.
According to the reporter's investigation, in the incident of "pollution caused by illegal dumping of chromium slag" in Qujing, Yunnan Province, there was a lack of supervision over the transportation and storage of chromium slag, and there was no so-called "transfer slip", that is, the transfer of hazardous waste must be submitted to the hazardous waste transfer slip for approval; After approval, the generating unit shall apply to the administrative department of environmental protection in the place where it moves out for a joint bill.