China cadmium spill threatens drinking water for millions {guardian link added}

[xchrom]

Last edited Mon Jan 30, 2012, 12:28 PM - Edit history (1)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/28/us-china-pollution-cadmium-idUKTRE80Q0IN20120128

(Reuters) - A cancer-causing cadmium discharge from a mining company has polluted a long stretch of two rivers in southern China, and officials warned some 3.7 million people of Liuzhou in the Guangxi region to avoid drinking water from the river, state media reported on Friday.

Pollution of waterways by toxic run-offs from factories and farms is a pressing issue in China, prompting authorities to call for policy tightening, though the problem shows no sign of going away.

Officials opened sluices at four upstream hydrological stations on the Longjiang River, a tributary to the Liujiang that runs through Liuzhou, hoping to dilute the pollutants after the toxic metal cadmium was first detected nearly two weeks ago in Hechi, Xinhua state news agency said.

Many fish died despite efforts by local fire officials to dissolve the cadmium by pouring hundreds of tonnes of neutralizers into the river, and authorities reported panic buying of bottled water by local residents.

[think]

1. Their solution to pollution is dilution. Not good.../nt

[Hestia]

2. China is totally screwing up their water resources - fallout from explosive deregulated

industries. How long before they go around the world 'acquiring' water? Has it happened already?

[XemaSab]

3. WTF are neutralizers?

Heavy metals are heavy metals. Maybe they can be converted to an inert form, but they don't go away.

[Nihil]

5. Yeah ... I wondered about that ...

>> Many fish died despite efforts by local fire officials to dissolve the cadmium
>> by pouring hundreds of tonnes of neutralizers into the river

Sounds more like "acids" than anything particularly "neutral" if the purpose is to
"dissolve" the transported cadmium ...

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Probably chelating agents ...

these complex the metal ions in a way which makes them biologically less accessible. NOT a permanent solution, as it all flows into the ocean eventually, but it provides a margin of safety relative to a completely untreated spill.

The focus should be on (1) avoiding used of Cd in the first place; (2) if you have to use it, don't dump or spill it; (3) in an emergency, have a procedure in place to minimize the effects of a spill. The Unrestrained Hand Of The Free Market jumps straight to (3), then underfunds it, and economic costs are minimized. When spills happen, Correxit -- oops, sorry -- "neutralizer" is dumped, wrists are lightly slapped, and profits are distributed all around. No reckoning of ecological costs.

[pscot]

7. You really nailed it

Laissez faire capitalism in a nutshell.

[wtmusic]

4. Cadmium is used to make PV solar cells

therefore it couldn't be harmful.

"Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material. Materials presently used for photovoltaics include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide/sulfide.[1] Due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent years."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaics

[xchrom]

8. Cadmium spill threatens water supplies of major Chinese city

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/30/cadmium-spill-china-river?intcmp=122

Chinese emergency personnel are erecting barrages and pouring hundreds of tonnes of chloride into a river in southern China in a desperate effort to prevent a toxic spill from contaminating the supplies of a major city.

The flow of cadmium - discharged into the Liu River earlier this month - has continued despite three previous containment operations, and now threatens the 3.2 million residents of Liuzhou city in Guangxi province.

Thousands of police, soldiers and fire brigade officers have been mobilised to halt the spill, which has sparked panic buying of bottled water and underscored the environmental cost that China is paying for its rapid economic growth.

At Nuomintan dam - 60km upstream - cadmium concentrations are eight times higher than safety levels, prompting the authorities to warn locals not to drink from affected stretches of the river. Cadmium is a known carcinogen that can also damage the lungs and kidneys.