Word: toxicants
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...residents living near the plant. At midnight, 10 hours after the blasts, the vice party secretary of the plant, which is owned by New York Stock Exchange-listed PetroChina Co., announced that people shouldn't worry about the orange cloud. "The explosion," he said, "did not cause toxic air pollution...
...Within hours, a toxic slick that grew to 80 km long had started to float down the Songhua. Jilin officials opened a reservoir to dilute the contaminants and instructed factories to avoid using river water. They also notified the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in Beijing, which coordinated the response. SEPA has issued conflicting statements about its subsequent actions. In a Nov. 24 statement it said that it "quickly" sent an expert team to Jilin and neighboring Heilongjiang province, which lies downstream. But in the same statement, SEPA said that Jilin officials didn't notify their counterparts in Heilongjiang until...
...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...