Over 200 children in China have high lead values after using dyes.

Over 200 children in China have high lead values after using dyes.

In northwestern china, more than 200 kindergarten children were found with abnormal blood -blazing values after kitchen employees used color as food coloring. This has led to outrage in a country that has long been affected by food safety scandals.

arrests and responsible

authorities announced that eight people, including the headmistress of the private kindergarten in which the children were looked after, were arrested. This was "under suspicion of producing toxic and harmful food", such as a report the city government of TianShui determined on Tuesday. The report, which is cited by the Chinese State Radio CCTV, describes that the headmistress and a financial supporter of the kindergarten had allowed the kitchen employees to use pigments from colors to color the children, which led to contamination.

Health consequences for the children

of the 251 students enrolled in kindergarten showed 233 abnormal lead concentrations in their blood. The children are currently being treated medically, with 201 of them currently in the hospital. The medical reviews on the effects of this exposure, which can lead to long -term and development -related damage, have not yet been published.

Local media reported that a pediatrician pointed out that aspects of the case could indicate chronic lead poisoning, i.e. exposure over a period of more than three months. During the examination, two food samples from kindergarten-a steamed date cake and a corn roll with sausage-were found that exceeded the national food standards for contamination more than 2000 times.

discovery of contaminated material

authorities also confiscated buckets with the color that contained lead and were clearly marked as unusual products. The top law enforcement officer from TianShui told CCTV that the headmistress and her investor intended to "gain more enrollments and increase the income" by the colorful dishes.

public reactions and demands for clarification

The authorities announced that they were headed by the investigation on July 1, after reports on the abnormal blood silent values of the children reached the public. The national health agency Chinas classifies “severe lead poisoning” than everything over 450 micrograms per liter. A concerned parent was commented on the unclear information: "My head was empty" when she learned from a hospital in a nearby city that her child's blood leak was 528 micrograms per liter - a revelation that came according to a prior statement of a previously responsible authority that wrote down the values as normal

Another mother complained: "The children eat the three-colored date cake and the corn sausage rolls only once or twice a week, how can they be poisoned so hard?"

claim for responsibility

The case has triggered extensive outrage on Chinese social media. A commentator noticed: "Serious responsibility must be taken over, and food security problems must not be ignored or neglected." In the past, scandals similar to the incident with melamine -contained baby food have greatly undermined trust in food safety in China.

experts demand increased transparency and thorough investigations in food security cases. Yanzhong Huang, a respected researcher for global health, emphasized that the lack of public trust in the security measures could lead to a “crisis of trust”.