China's top environment official has called for more effective measures to tackle heavy metal poisoning in response to a series of lead poisoning incidents across the country.
Incidents of lead poisoning have dogged steel nuts China's heavy metal bases in Shaanxi, Hunan, Henan and Yunnan provinces, leading to closures of smelters and protests by parents furious over their children's maladies from lead.
More than 1,300 children machining parts in central Hunan province, 200 in Yunnan province and at least 615 in northern Shaanxi province tested positive for lead poisoning last month.
Lead poisoning can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and memory loss.
"The prevention of heavy metal pollution should be put in a more urgent and more important position," Environment Protection Minister Zhou Shengxian told a national pollution prevention meeting
"Effective measures should be taken to cope with heavy metal pollution."
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