2013年 03月 01日 16:48
将土壤污染数据列为国家秘密为何重要
本周，中国有关环保部门将土壤污染数据列为"国家秘密"这一决定引发喧嚣。任何人如果觉得这难以理解，那么就看一看中国南方一家共产党控制的报纸和几家食品企业之间愈演愈烈的争端吧。
位于争端中心的是，1万多吨致癌大米的下落。
中共报纸《南方日报》周三刊发的一篇调查报告指出，2009年，一大批镉（一种毒性很大的重金属）超标的大米进入广东市场。这批大米是国有深粮集团从湖南购买的，报道说，深粮集团在发现大米镉超标后仍然继续发往广东出售。
深粮集团在其网站上发表声明反驳《南方日报》的指控，说发现镉超标的问题后第一时间采取紧急措施，封存该批大米，并把其中的问题大米全部完成退货退款。
据国有《环球时报》周四的一篇报道说，在《南方日报》的报道中被指使用问题大米酿造啤酒的广州珠江啤酒股份有限公司也否认该报的说法，说进行了严格的内部质量检查。
尽管围绕大量镉超标大米去向的谜团一直没有被解开，却没有人质疑镉超标大米的存在，而这正是令人感到不寒而栗的地方。除《南方日报》的报道外，早些时候也有类似问题的报道，其中包括2010年美国资助的一项研究，该研究发现中国香烟重金属含量极高。这些报道表明，中国大片农田存在严重问题。
问题有多严重？南京农业大学的专家潘根兴说，他认为中国水稻年产量的10%（约2,000万吨）存在镉残留量超标问题。但其他作物呢？其他形式的污染呢？
对于中国土地有多少存在镉超标问题，唯一有发言权的权威机构是环境保护部。2006年，环保部在全国范围发起了一项土壤污染状况调查。本月早些时候，环保部拒绝了一名北京律师提出的公开该调查结果的申请，称土壤污染数据是"国家秘密"。
环保部随后发现自己成了舆论的众矢之的，社交媒体用户和国有媒体都对环保部的做法进行了抨击。
愤怒的一大部分原因在于对滥用"国家秘密"这一借口的条件反射式不满，另外很多人也真心为环保部门拒绝公开有可能导致严重健康问题的信息感到痛心疾首。
镉米的故事只是让人们看清了相关后果会有多么严重。《环球时报》引用广东省疾病控制中心(Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control)的话说，镉是一种致癌物，可以在人体内停留长达30年。该报还指出，镉还会引发"痛痛病"，这种病最初于上世纪40年代在日本发现，是骨骼疏松或变形引发的疼痛。
新浪微博的一名用户周四写道，毒大米的源头是它生长的土壤，但土壤污染是一个国家秘密，所以你永远也找不到源头。
Josh Chin
位于争端中心的是，1万多吨致癌大米的下落。
中共报纸《南方日报》周三刊发的一篇调查报告指出，2009年，一大批镉（一种毒性很大的重金属）超标的大米进入广东市场。这批大米是国有深粮集团从湖南购买的，报道说，深粮集团在发现大米镉超标后仍然继续发往广东出售。
深粮集团在其网站上发表声明反驳《南方日报》的指控，说发现镉超标的问题后第一时间采取紧急措施，封存该批大米，并把其中的问题大米全部完成退货退款。
据国有《环球时报》周四的一篇报道说，在《南方日报》的报道中被指使用问题大米酿造啤酒的广州珠江啤酒股份有限公司也否认该报的说法，说进行了严格的内部质量检查。
尽管围绕大量镉超标大米去向的谜团一直没有被解开，却没有人质疑镉超标大米的存在，而这正是令人感到不寒而栗的地方。除《南方日报》的报道外，早些时候也有类似问题的报道，其中包括2010年美国资助的一项研究，该研究发现中国香烟重金属含量极高。这些报道表明，中国大片农田存在严重问题。
问题有多严重？南京农业大学的专家潘根兴说，他认为中国水稻年产量的10%（约2,000万吨）存在镉残留量超标问题。但其他作物呢？其他形式的污染呢？
对于中国土地有多少存在镉超标问题，唯一有发言权的权威机构是环境保护部。2006年，环保部在全国范围发起了一项土壤污染状况调查。本月早些时候，环保部拒绝了一名北京律师提出的公开该调查结果的申请，称土壤污染数据是"国家秘密"。
环保部随后发现自己成了舆论的众矢之的，社交媒体用户和国有媒体都对环保部的做法进行了抨击。
愤怒的一大部分原因在于对滥用"国家秘密"这一借口的条件反射式不满，另外很多人也真心为环保部门拒绝公开有可能导致严重健康问题的信息感到痛心疾首。
镉米的故事只是让人们看清了相关后果会有多么严重。《环球时报》引用广东省疾病控制中心(Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control)的话说，镉是一种致癌物，可以在人体内停留长达30年。该报还指出，镉还会引发"痛痛病"，这种病最初于上世纪40年代在日本发现，是骨骼疏松或变形引发的疼痛。
新浪微博的一名用户周四写道，毒大米的源头是它生长的土壤，但土壤污染是一个国家秘密，所以你永远也找不到源头。
Josh Chin
2013年 03月 01日 16:48
Why China's State Soil Secrets Matter
Anyone struggling to understand the uproar in China this week over environmental authorities' decision to label soil pollution data a "state secret" need only look at a dispute unfolding in the country's south between a Communist Party-controlled newspaper and several food companies.
At the center of the dispute: the whereabouts of more than 10,000 tons of carcinogenic rice.
According to an investigative report published Wednesday by the party-run Nanfang Daily newspaper (in Chinese), a large shipment of rice tainted with cadmium a highly toxic heavy metal ─ found its way onto the market in southern China's Guangdong province in 2009. The rice had been purchased in Hunan province by the state-owned Shenzhen Cereals Group, which proceeded to sell it in Guangdong even after discovering the cadmium, the report said.
Shenzhen Cereals Group rejected the Nanfang Daily allegations in a statement posted to its website (in Chinese), saying it "took immediate emergency measures" as soon as it discovered excessive cadmium and sent the tainted rice back.
The Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery 002461.SZ +1.04%, which was accused in the Nanfang Daily report of using the contaminated rice to brew its beer, also denied the newspaper's claims, citing stringent internal quality checks, according to a report Thursday by the state-run Global Times.
While the mystery of what happened to the vast pile of cadmium-tainted rice has never been resolved, no one is disputing it existed and that is where things get scary. Combined with earlier reports, including a 2010 U.S.-funded study that found Chinese cigarettes contained extremely high levels of heavy metals, the story suggests that something is very wrong with significant swathes of China's agricultural land.
How big is the problem? Pan Genxing, an expert at Nanjing Agricultural University, says he thinks 10% of the country's annual rice output, roughly 20 million tons, contains excessive levels of cadmium. But what about other crops and other forms of contamination?
The one organization in a position to say authoritatively how much of China's land is laced with cadmium is the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which in 2006 launched a nation-wide soil-pollution survey. Earlier this month, the ministry rejected a Beijing lawyer's request to see the results of that survey, claiming the data was a "state secret."
The ministry subsequently found itself being hammered, by social media users and state media alike, for its obfuscation.
While reflexive frustration with abuse of the "state secrets" excuse by bureaucrats accounted for a lot of the anger, many were also genuinely upset that environmental authorities had refused to release information with serious potential health consequences for the public.
The story of the cadmium-laced rice only drives home how grave those consequences could be. Cadmium is a carcinogen that can stay in the body for 30 years, the Global Times said, citing the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control. The newspaper noted that cadmium also causes itai-itai disease, a painful condition resulting from weak or deformed bones first identified in Japan in the 1940s.
"The source of the poison in the rice is the soil in which it was grown, but soil pollution is a state secret, so you'll never trace the source," wrote one user of Sina Corp.'s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service on Thursday.
At the center of the dispute: the whereabouts of more than 10,000 tons of carcinogenic rice.
According to an investigative report published Wednesday by the party-run Nanfang Daily newspaper (in Chinese), a large shipment of rice tainted with cadmium a highly toxic heavy metal ─ found its way onto the market in southern China's Guangdong province in 2009. The rice had been purchased in Hunan province by the state-owned Shenzhen Cereals Group, which proceeded to sell it in Guangdong even after discovering the cadmium, the report said.
Shenzhen Cereals Group rejected the Nanfang Daily allegations in a statement posted to its website (in Chinese), saying it "took immediate emergency measures" as soon as it discovered excessive cadmium and sent the tainted rice back.
The Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery 002461.SZ +1.04%, which was accused in the Nanfang Daily report of using the contaminated rice to brew its beer, also denied the newspaper's claims, citing stringent internal quality checks, according to a report Thursday by the state-run Global Times.
While the mystery of what happened to the vast pile of cadmium-tainted rice has never been resolved, no one is disputing it existed and that is where things get scary. Combined with earlier reports, including a 2010 U.S.-funded study that found Chinese cigarettes contained extremely high levels of heavy metals, the story suggests that something is very wrong with significant swathes of China's agricultural land.
How big is the problem? Pan Genxing, an expert at Nanjing Agricultural University, says he thinks 10% of the country's annual rice output, roughly 20 million tons, contains excessive levels of cadmium. But what about other crops and other forms of contamination?
The one organization in a position to say authoritatively how much of China's land is laced with cadmium is the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which in 2006 launched a nation-wide soil-pollution survey. Earlier this month, the ministry rejected a Beijing lawyer's request to see the results of that survey, claiming the data was a "state secret."
The ministry subsequently found itself being hammered, by social media users and state media alike, for its obfuscation.
While reflexive frustration with abuse of the "state secrets" excuse by bureaucrats accounted for a lot of the anger, many were also genuinely upset that environmental authorities had refused to release information with serious potential health consequences for the public.
The story of the cadmium-laced rice only drives home how grave those consequences could be. Cadmium is a carcinogen that can stay in the body for 30 years, the Global Times said, citing the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control. The newspaper noted that cadmium also causes itai-itai disease, a painful condition resulting from weak or deformed bones first identified in Japan in the 1940s.
"The source of the poison in the rice is the soil in which it was grown, but soil pollution is a state secret, so you'll never trace the source," wrote one user of Sina Corp.'s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service on Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment