Archive for the ‘tobaccocontrol’ tag

Yuqing heart: from cigarettes, “heavy metal Gate” to see soil pollution

October 26, 2010
Recently, the U.S. health policy journal “Tobacco Control” (TobaccoControl) published a report: samples of 13 brands of Chinese 2 to 3 times, the majority of tobacco to China China struck a wake-up call.
I remember a year ago in the Qatari capital of Doha, turn West Asia, and found the huge assortment of duty-free hall in the Palais goods without Chinese goods. China shopping guide counter lady told me no. Insisted on my request, she finally pulls out two in the bottom shelf “Panda” brand. I asked how to sell, she said: “Chinese people are buying, tax-free thing.” Before “Chinese poison tea” so much noise even China has also cast a shadow, even if placed on the shelves of foreign, still ” export to domestic sales. ”
The appearance of the Chinese more difficult.
What is heavy metal? Refers to the periodic table in chemistry of cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead elements. If excessive heavy metals in the human body, it will seriously affect human health. Of course, excessive heavy smokers smoked tobacco, health, sooner or later the subject.
It is reported, resulting in the ingredients, not as melamine in the production process, as has been artificially added, and it is likely to come from China soil. As the quality control staff said, like other crops, like tobacco, “from the land to absorb minerals and other things” in the draw when soil nutrients in the soil may absorb “toxins.”
According to the old industrial countries, the lessons learned from the heavy metal pollution of soil pollution to human health, the subject appears, usually a long lag time. Such as the destruction of the cerebral cortex is the result of a strange disease, has been found after two decades of.
then the actual situation of soil pollution in the end what? Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out with three years of heavy metal pollution of soil survey completed in 2009 after the data has not been announced. Involved in the research associate Huang Yizong pointed out that some parts of the exploitation of mineral, some heavy metal pollution to farmland, crops and cash crops makes polluted, especially in the southwest, central and South provinces in the performance of certain significant. “Soil pollution in the expansion area, while tobacco was just one aspect of pollution, some areas of rice, vegetables, there was heavy metal pollution.”
Sewers, one can see black smoke billowing, odor can smell, see, can hear the noise, and soil pollution can not easily be perceived, often overlooked, so the risk is even greater. In fact, the soil pollution in China is a major disaster.
Chinese Academy of Sciences study shows that China current heavy-metal contamination of arable land nearly 20 million hectares of arable land in 2006 the total area of ??about 1 / 10 to expand to the current 1 / 5, and an annual production 12 million tons of food, causing direct economic losses of more than 20 billion yuan. Famous rich soil specifically Wan Hung said, Guangdong “is not really where serious pollution in the Pearl River Delta, but the province more than 3,000 large and small around the pollution of land mines, should arouse our attention to the most places.”

According to experts, the first volume, once the soil heavy metal pollution, it is very difficult to return to normal, and high capital management did not say and hard to eradicate. Such as an area of ??10 hectares of polluting enterprises, local governments that may be brought to the hundreds of million of revenue. And if these 10 hectares of land is contaminated, it may take a billion or even a lot more money into only be gradually restored. If not to control, natural recovery of the soil itself alone, a few hundred or even thousands of years.
Obviously, soil heavy metal pollution has on public health and the Chinese natural environment caused great harm. Therefore, it was said that the Chinese tobacco excessive heavy metals, it is a tragic story about industrial pollution. However, the Chinese government is still in their pursuit of GDP growth, resource development and use of destructive. Entitled, when the air we breathe, the water is polluted to sustain life, and even the survival of our soil is full of toxins, we can continue to develop next to it?