Censured report on premature Chinese deaths

The Scratching Post has a nice blog about heavy metals in Chinese food. More along these lines came out of the Financial Asia Pacific Times which has reported that the Chinese government is pressuring the World Bank to remove nearly a third of its report on pollution in China because of concerns that findings on premature deaths could provoke social unrest.

The report found that about 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities. Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, according to previous World Bank research.

Missing from this report are the research project’s findings that high air-pollution levels in Chinese cities is leading to the premature deaths of 350,000-400,000 people each year. A further 300,000 people die prematurely each year from exposure to poor air indoors, according to advisers, but little discussion of this issue survived in the report because it was outside the ambit of the Chinese ministries which sponsored the research.

Another 60,000-odd premature deaths were attributable to poor-quality water, largely in the countryside, from severe diarrhoea, and stomach, liver and bladder cancers.