China's hi-tech toxics
Photo journalist Jeroen Bouman gets a rare glimpse inside the illegal Chinese workshops where young teenagers work long hours amid noxious fumes, recycling computers from the US and Europe. The industry has turned four villages in Guiyu, Guangdong province, into toxic waste tips. Drinking water is now brought by lorries from 30 kilometres away.
One of my friends from Japan mentioned to me the other day the unrestrained use of pesticides ("noyaku") in China, and the fact that some people in Japan are getting sick from eating agricultural products from China. (I too enjoy eating "Asian Pears" imported from China...) My friend says some agricultural products from China test many times above the allowed level for chemicals. I've also read that one should be careful when buying candies in Asian grocery stores because they may contain nasty things like lead due to poor regulation. That sucks because I love to buy candies, especially the preserved plums and lemons from Chinese grocery stores. Hopefully with market pressure there will be better regulation. I feel sorry for China because they are modernizing too quickly and getting hit with all the nasty effects at once - they don't have the luxury of 100+ years to learn to accomodate these things, and the corruption in the government prevents good environmental reform. I hope it won't be too late when the harsh truth finally catches up with them.
11:24:48 AM 
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