Word: toxicants
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...reason that officials in northeastern China decided not to announce that a 50-mile slick of toxic benzene was headed downriver toward the city of Harbin earlier this month was their fear of damaging tourism and investment in the region, sources tell TIME. Instead, as the potentially lethal spill approached the metropolis of 10 million people, the city said in an online statement that the entire water supply was being shut down for "water main maintenance and repair...
...meeting ended with Zhang saying that after the water was declared safe, he would drink the first glass. He did so last Sunday evening, two weeks after the toxic spill nobody wanted to mention...
...other words, while China was experiencing one of its worst industrial accidents in years, the official reaction was to keep the truth under wraps?while millions faced exposure to toxic chemicals. "There is an information-disclosure gap in China," says Jennifer Turner, coordinator of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. "A public right to information isn't there...
...downriver from Harbin, someone took it on himself to post a homemade sign near the river. "The water has poison," it read. "Don't drink it or fish in it." To help restore a sense of trust, Heilongjiang's top official, party secretary Song Fatang, announced that once the toxic slick has passed the city and the water supply has resumed, "I'll have the first mouthful." But it isn't just China's rivers that need cleaning up. So does the process by which authorities tell citizens the truth about risks to their health...
...environmental disaster that has unfolded over the past two weeks in the northeast Chinese city of Harbin has the makings of a great story: explosion at large petrochemical plant releases toxic pollutants into major river, threatening millions; local officials attempt cover-up; panic ensues; wiser voices prevail; corrective action is taken. Unfortunately, the real story remains largely untold. China's rapid economic development, endemic corruption and highly decentralized political system have produced a life-threatening environmental crisis for hundreds of millions of Chinese...