China children sue factory over chemical leak
Date: 21-Sep-01
Country: CHINA
The trial began this week in an open hearing at the Jiande city People's Intermediate Court in the province of Zhejiang, the Legal Daily said.
The students are seeking damages of more than seven million yuan ($845,000) after suffering headaches, dizziness, nausea, abdominal pains, coughing and mental distress, the newspaper said.
It said they rushed to hospital within days of the April 4 accident at the factory near their school. The plant made the toxic chemical polystyrene used to make the styrofoam lunch boxes which are ubiquitous in China.
The students also say waste discharged by the factory into into nearby rivers and drainage pipes has threatened the school during the six years since the factory was established, according to the paper. It did not give details.
The students charge that the factory was set up illegally in 1995 over the objections of residents and businesses in the area, it said.
The factory says that under normal circumstances it does not endanger the community and that the leak, which lasted four minutes, occurred due to human error, according to the newspaper.
It says the chemical leak might have detrimental effects but would not poison anyone, it said.
The lawsuit highlights people's growing awareness of the health risks of industrial pollution and accidents in China, which has an appalling safety record.
The official Xinhua news agency has reported 47,000 people killed in 350,000 industrial and transportation accidents in the first half of this year in China.
China has some of the world's most polluted cities and the government acknowledges than many of its 1.3 billion people drink contaminated water.
Premier Zhu Rongji unveiled China's first "green" five-year plan for economic development in March, stressing the need to clear choking air pollution, clean up rivers and curb water consumption.
