Lead poison scandal grows

       The impact of a Chinese lead poisoning scandal spread to another two provinces yesterday, threatening further cuts in supply from the world's top producer of the metal.
       Hunan, the second-biggest producer of refined lead among China's provinces,and Guangxi, which ranks number five,are checking smelters after protests by parents at a lead and zinc smelter operated by Dongling Group inChangqing, Shaanxi province, and at a manganese smelter in Hunan earlier this month.
       "The result of the checks will come in another few days," a smelter official in Hunan said, adding that possible closures of lead smelters would depend on the findings.
       Lead poisoning is endemic among villages near Chinese smelters.
       In Shaanxi's Fengxian, where smoke billows from a Dongling Group zinc smelter, two wan and listless toddlers tested with high levels of lead in their blood earlier this year.
       "These problems are really common.It's just that the Dongling case in Changqing got some attention," said a villager.
       Older villagers develop circulatory problems and some workers got too sick to work.
       "This environmental pollution is not unique to Fengxian. It's all over."
       Lead poisoning due to air and water pollution from poorly regulated smelters and mines haunts the valleys of the orerich Qinling range, in a poor and remote part of China.
       The problem dogs heavy metals bases in Hunan, Henan, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. Closing polluting plants has pushed the industry to poorer areas where any investment is welcome.
       The shift to poorer regions echoes the migration of the lead smelting industry to China over the last decade,as stricter environmental laws forced smelters in richer countries to close.
       In late 2005, two of China's largest zinc smelters shut temporarily after cadmium contaminated the Pearl River Delta and the Xiang River, sources of drinking water for millions in Hunan and Guangdong Provinces.
       More than 1,500 children have tested positive to excessive amounts of lead in the past two weeks.