what do you want to know about PRC?
- Thread starter silverpike
- Start date
Aerodriver
New Member
Extracts from a paper From Enviromental Health Perspectives.
Anyone REALLY interested in reading the full report can find it at
China's extraordinary economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization, coupled with inadequate investment in basic water supply and treatment infrastructure, have resulted in widespread water pollution. In China today approximately 700 million people--over half the population--consume drinking water contaminated with levels of animal and human excreta that exceed maximum permissible levels by as much as 86% in rural areas and 28% in urban areas.
As of 1996, only 5% of municipal wastewater and 17% of industrial discharge received any treatment before being discharged into lakes, rivers, irrigation ditches, or the coastal waters
10 major polluting sectors of Chinese TVIEs in Beijing, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guizhou, Guangdong, and Hubei. Organic matter, acids, alkalis, nitrogen, phosphate, phenols, cyanide, lead, cadmium, mercury, and bichromate were among the major water pollutants found in the bodies of water near rural residential areas and their drinking water systems. Monitoring results showed that all the major pollutants analyzed exceeded national standards for drinking water quality. Mercury concentrations were 45-700% in excess of the standard, whereas concentrations of lead were 3,600-5,216% greater than the standard.
In a number of studies, pollutants released by TVIEs have been linked to adverse health effects. In China overall, liver and stomach cancer deaths have doubled since the 1970s, and are now the leading causes of cancer mortality in rural China (9). China now has the highest liver cancer death rate in the world
END of extracts
Offical gouvement figures from the Conference on Water Quality and Arsenic Mitigation organized in Taiyuan, China, November 23-26 2004
(c) Observing that in the countries where arsenic in groundwater has been
demonstrated at least 50 million people are exposed to arsenic levels in water
exceeding 50 ug/L, and that the population exposed to arsenic concentrations
exceeding the WHO recommended guideline value for arsenic in drinking water of
10 ug/L is many times that;
(d) Adding furthermore that 200 million people are exposed to fluoride in
their drinking water in excess of recommended concentrations, while 790
million people rely on microbiologically unsafe drinking water sources;
(e) Understanding that in China and other parts of the region the unique
situation exists of exposure to arsenic through the burning of arseniferous
coal, in addition to the exposure through drinking water, and that through
this route at least a further 100,000 people are exposed;
(f) Concerned that the combined environmental exposure to date has led to
at least 200,000 people developing arsenicosis, a disease for which no cure
exists and which results in progressive loss of productivity through
disablement and finally death if exposure to arsenic through all pathways is
not mitigated;
Another article on water from 2005.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I will drink more bottled water now…but seriously in the big cities the water is safe as long as its boiled. You need to boil it to kill the microbes that western water companies kill in the water process, so from that point alone the water is not as clean as in most of Europe or America.
Anyone REALLY interested in reading the full report can find it at
China's extraordinary economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization, coupled with inadequate investment in basic water supply and treatment infrastructure, have resulted in widespread water pollution. In China today approximately 700 million people--over half the population--consume drinking water contaminated with levels of animal and human excreta that exceed maximum permissible levels by as much as 86% in rural areas and 28% in urban areas.
As of 1996, only 5% of municipal wastewater and 17% of industrial discharge received any treatment before being discharged into lakes, rivers, irrigation ditches, or the coastal waters
10 major polluting sectors of Chinese TVIEs in Beijing, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guizhou, Guangdong, and Hubei. Organic matter, acids, alkalis, nitrogen, phosphate, phenols, cyanide, lead, cadmium, mercury, and bichromate were among the major water pollutants found in the bodies of water near rural residential areas and their drinking water systems. Monitoring results showed that all the major pollutants analyzed exceeded national standards for drinking water quality. Mercury concentrations were 45-700% in excess of the standard, whereas concentrations of lead were 3,600-5,216% greater than the standard.
In a number of studies, pollutants released by TVIEs have been linked to adverse health effects. In China overall, liver and stomach cancer deaths have doubled since the 1970s, and are now the leading causes of cancer mortality in rural China (9). China now has the highest liver cancer death rate in the world
END of extracts
Offical gouvement figures from the Conference on Water Quality and Arsenic Mitigation organized in Taiyuan, China, November 23-26 2004
(c) Observing that in the countries where arsenic in groundwater has been
demonstrated at least 50 million people are exposed to arsenic levels in water
exceeding 50 ug/L, and that the population exposed to arsenic concentrations
exceeding the WHO recommended guideline value for arsenic in drinking water of
10 ug/L is many times that;
(d) Adding furthermore that 200 million people are exposed to fluoride in
their drinking water in excess of recommended concentrations, while 790
million people rely on microbiologically unsafe drinking water sources;
(e) Understanding that in China and other parts of the region the unique
situation exists of exposure to arsenic through the burning of arseniferous
coal, in addition to the exposure through drinking water, and that through
this route at least a further 100,000 people are exposed;
(f) Concerned that the combined environmental exposure to date has led to
at least 200,000 people developing arsenicosis, a disease for which no cure
exists and which results in progressive loss of productivity through
disablement and finally death if exposure to arsenic through all pathways is
not mitigated;
Another article on water from 2005.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I will drink more bottled water now…but seriously in the big cities the water is safe as long as its boiled. You need to boil it to kill the microbes that western water companies kill in the water process, so from that point alone the water is not as clean as in most of Europe or America.
darth sidious
Banned Idiot
Aerodriver said:
Thank you Silverpike
I enjoyed your commentory and look forward to the next installment. You have hit the nail squarly on the head, with the kind of thing I am interested to hearing about. Please do not be shy at sharing your personal feelings about these changes and whether these are similar or different from your friends and contemporaries.
I enjoyed your commentory and look forward to the next installment. You have hit the nail squarly on the head, with the kind of thing I am interested to hearing about. Please do not be shy at sharing your personal feelings about these changes and whether these are similar or different from your friends and contemporaries.
D
Deleted member 675
Guest
Well that is such a complex issue to bring up, and really I don't have the time to talk about it now. Perhaps I'll come up with something later.
Though I should point out that (obviously) I'm not from the PRC.
Though I should point out that (obviously) I'm not from the PRC.
silverpike
New Member
Azn boi said:
in china, the water form the tap is not 100% drinkable, well personally, i do not drink it, most of people might boil it frist,(to drink hot water is also chinese people's habit) or order the water form the water company(comes in big pleastic can, and put the can on water machine, never find it overseas)
but there are people who doesn't care, they will simply drink form tap, they seem alright.
water certainly doesn't cause diarrhea in china! how can people survive with 'diarrhea' water? our water supply is no different from other countries,it's just they put some sort of chemical stuff(purificant maybe) in it, make it taste bad and weird.
about the coal industry pollution, the government still doesn't have a effective method to handle the problem. china is crazy for resources, the coal producer will just ignore any rules and keep digging. the price of coal keep rising for yrs!
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bd popeye said:
haha,
personally i perfer Qingdao than Beijing, Qingdao is a small size coastal city, with nice landscape and nice beach. chinese cities are sure different form the west.it is pity that i wasn't in the city when US ships visit. well, there will be similiar event in furture, since Qingdao has always been the HQ of the northern navy.
HongKong is just so different form the mainland, you should visit mainland sometime in the furture, HongKong is not as 'chinese' as us.
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Aerodriver said:
yea, the chinese police is more civilized than they use to be ,especially in the big cities.
Aerodriver said:
yea, it is tricky situation, but we are not going face this problem for at least another 50-60 yrs, if your apartment still exists around that time,(all the building since 50s-70s in my city have been torn down in past 10 yrs), my grandchild will have to deal with it?
Aerodriver said:
oh, yea, we call it 'economy apply apartment'(something like that,) you have to be a low-incoming person to apply those kind of cheap apartment. it's a national welfare policy.
Aerodriver said:
well, chinese church's head is still god. but it has to be administrate by the CCP government, well i guess you could put it that way.
well, since you are not chinese, i just wondering how do you feel about 'to live in china' ? do you feel the china's difference from west in everyday life? i mean, do you feel political tensions, or feel your freedom has been taking away? what's good things about PRC(i hope there are some
) , and what's bad about it?
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There is much to comment on in this thread but I will decline to post about anything that may be political. I just want to thank silverpike for his very honest answers.
He made an eariler comment about porn and mentioned that Chinese parents generally do not discuss sex with their kids. In my opinion this would be a bad thing. Silverpike is there "Sex Education" in school in China?..Is this problem about teaching kids about sex a cultural thing? I know there are many parents worldwide(US also) that let the schools teach the kids about S-E-X....simply because they do not want to discuss it. Afterall somebody in China must know something about sex there are 1,300,000,000 Chinese! They all did not get there by magic!
He made an eariler comment about porn and mentioned that Chinese parents generally do not discuss sex with their kids. In my opinion this would be a bad thing. Silverpike is there "Sex Education" in school in China?..Is this problem about teaching kids about sex a cultural thing? I know there are many parents worldwide(US also) that let the schools teach the kids about S-E-X....simply because they do not want to discuss it. Afterall somebody in China must know something about sex there are 1,300,000,000 Chinese! They all did not get there by magic!
Well may i ask you Popeye, did your parents tell you about sex?
I think the sex issue is mostly down the quite conservative general athmosphere in china (or at least i assume so) The free discussion about sex is more of western liberal ways adopted only few decades ago. Back in the beginning of 20th century and earlyer, sex was propaply as big tabu as it is nowdays still in china....but magicaly we are here so i'm guessing that nature finds it's ways
Baibar of Jalat
Junior Member
I simply think undrinkable water is not unique to China. In Britain during industrial revolution up until after ww2 (i think)
Edit. Poor innercity People used to drink more beer then water due to beer was safer and cheaper to drink. Britain still is a nation of drunks, highest alcohol death rate in the EU.
Just an interesting facts.
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