China Environmental Law

The Hubei vanadium smelters continue to drive news coverage in China.  The facts as to how many smelters were shut down and how many continue to operate (illegally) change slightly with each story so its difficult to know exactly what’s going on. 

It appears, however, that my original conclusions that at least some local governmental departments turned a blind eye to the illegal status of the smelters was correct.

In a report yesterday 

Li Jigao, Party chief of Jianli County said the resurgence of the illegal mills has exposed the inability of the government to take effective action.  

At least 5 departments share responsibility for solving the problem of the vanadium mills and the lack of coordination creates many loopholes for the profiteers to exploit.

And how did the profiteers exploit those loopholes?  Please be seated; this may come as a shock.

Why are they so difficult to ban? The answer is money. Running vanadium mills is the most profitable business in Jianli, China Youth Daily reported on October 20.

“The villagers are boiling with anger,” said a local man who added that powerful interest groups probably held shares in the illegal mills.

What about the poor villagers?  We have been spared no detail surrounding their suffering:

One day in September Mr. He, a cotton farmer from Sanzhou Town, Jianli County, in Hubei Province, noticed his nose and eyes were itchy. A few days later yellow fluid was oozing out of his nose and his eyelids were so swollen he could barely see.

It is being reported, however, that claims that their ailments were smelter induced were based on a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.  One report notes that

According to the Ministry of Health, 1300 people have been affected by skin problems, 600 seriously. Medical teams sent to examine the sick villagers concluded they were suffering from “ordinary skin inflammation”.

A report issued by the Hubei Health Department says “surveys were conducted in villages with and without vanadium mills, and the results were similar. Therefore, it’s difficult to tell if there is a direct connection between the vanadium pollution and the villagers’ skin conditions.”

Another report states

A skin rash that recently affected more than 1,000 cotton farmers in Jianli County, Hubei Province, was caused by boll worms, an official said yesterday.

Take your pick “ordinary skin inflammation” or “boll worms.”  I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this story.