West's green trend spells danger for workers

DEMAND from the West for environmentally friendly products is partly at the root of the lead poisoning scandal.

China's health ministry said in 2006 that a nationwide test for children was unnecessary because their blood lead levels had been falling. But since then, a new source of pollution - factories producing lead-acid batteries for electric bikes, motorcycles and cars - has emerged. The industry has grown by 20 per cent a year for the past five or six years, according to Wang Jingzhong, vice-director of the China Battery Industry Association. China now has some 2,000 factories and 1,000 battery-recycling plants.

At the Haijiu battery factory, which exports to the United States and Europe, regulation of lead emissions was not so much lax as non-existent. The factory's opening in 2005 brought more than 1,000 jobs. Local authorities allowed it to expand to within a rice paddy of the village. They also ignored the breakdown of ventilation equipment.

One worker said he had watched a supervisor cover a device that tests for emissions with his cap, then whisk the inspectors away for tea.