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China's toxic harvest: Growing tainted food in "cancer villages"
中国的毒性丰收，在癌症村种植污染的庄稼。
The hill of chemical waste beside Farmer Wu Shuliang’s rice paddy began to take shape in the 1990s.
在农民吴书良的稻田后面的堆积如山的化学废物于九十年代开始显示出它的不良后果。
“It was yellow and green and it smelled terrible," says Wu, standing on the edge of his rice paddy in rural Yunnan, in China's southwest. The waste was from a factory next door, a byproduct from making chemicals used for tanning leather.
站在中国西南边陲云南乡下水稻田的田埂上。吴书良告诉人们：“它是黄绿色的，很刺鼻。” 废污来自附近一座生产处理皮革的化学制品的工厂。
Each day for 20 years, workers dumped more of it, making the hill bigger and bigger. Last year, an estimated 300 million pounds of chemical sludge towered over Wu’s land and the river below.
过去的二十年，工人每天都倒出化学废物，使得那座废物山越来越大。去年，大约三亿磅的化学废物倒在吴的田里和下面的河流里。
"Whenever it rained, our rice paddy and the river would suddenly turn bright yellow," Wu says. "Much of my rice died. It killed everything in its path."
“每次下雨，我们的水田和河流会突然变成明黄色。我的水稻很多都被毒死。它把它流经的任何东西都毒死。” 吴说。
Around the time the hill began to form, Wu and his wife had two sons. The two boys grew up bathing in the river that turned yellow when it rained, they breathed the dust that blew off of the hill on windy days, and the oldest son, Wu Wenyong, spent much of his childhood working the rice paddies in the hill’s shadow.
废物山刚开始堆积时，吴和他妻子共育有两个儿子。两个孩子在那下雨时变成黄色的河里洗澡。他们呼吸着那废物山吹起的灰尘。大儿子吴文勇的大部分童年是劳作在废物山阴森森影子下的水稻田里。
When he was 14, Wu Wenyong began having health problems. He couldn’t stop coughing, he had difficulty breathing, and his chest hurt.
十四岁时，吴文勇开始身体出问题，不停地咳嗽，呼吸困难，胸口发痛。
"We heard on the local news that this hill might be harmful to our health, so we took our son to the hospital and asked the doctor whether it had anything to do with his health problems," remembers Wu's mother Qi Xianying. "The doctor didn’t say anything. He just shook his head."
This was in 2011.
“我们听当地的新闻说这座山可能对健康非常有害。所以我们带孩子去医院问医生孩子的病是不是那座山引起的。” 孩子的母亲齐香英回忆着。“医生什么都没说，只是摇头叹息。”那年是2011年。
At the time, the environmental NGO Greenpeace had traveled to Wu’s village here in rural Yunnan province to test the water in the rice paddies and wells surrounding the hill. The samples were high inChromium-6, a known carcinogen. One water sample from Wu’s land showed the level of Chromium-6 was 240 times higher than what China and the U.S. allows in their drinking water.
那年，非政府环保组织绿色和平到吴的云南乡下来测试水稻田和废物山附近的水井里的水。水样测试显示Chromium-6（六介铬化物），一种已知的致癌物。从吴的水稻田里得到的水样显示Chromium-6的浓度是中国和美国容许的饮用水的240倍。
“I would say that’s startlingly high," says U.C. Davis researcher Peter Green, who studies chromium’s impact on water. “Although some people can detoxify some amount of it, the amounts mentioned are very, very high and to me it’s not plausible that that could be detoxified by anyone.”
“我认为那是吓人的高浓度。”加州大学戴维斯分校研究员彼得。格林说。彼得的研究包括
水里铬化物（chromium）的影响。“虽然有些人体内能去掉一部分铬化物毒性。但浓度高达那个程度是非常非常高的，人体已经不可能抵挡那个毒性。”
Wu Wenyong was in eighth grade when he was diagnosed with two types of cancer: leukemia and thymoma.
吴文勇是在他八年级时诊断出得了两种癌症：白血病和胸腺癌。
The doctor handed over the diagnosis report to the 14-year-old. Neither his father nor his mother can read.
医生把诊断书给了十四岁的孩子，因为他爸爸妈妈都不认识这些字。
“We didn’t understand what was going on, but as my son read the diagnosis, he seemed to understand how severe his cancer was," says Qi Xianying through tears. "I felt so guilty and so sad, but he had the strength to smile. He told me ‘Mom, don’t cry. I won’t be around to help farm the land anymore, but dad will help you. It’ll be all right.’”
“我们都不知道问题有多严重，但是我的儿子读了诊断书，他好像知道那癌症有多严重。我很伤心。感到对不住孩子。但他很坚强，强忍欢颜对我讲，妈妈，别哭。我不能再帮你种地了，但爸爸会帮你的。一切会好的。”齐香英哽咽着说。
Qi and her husband borrowed thousands of dollars from family and sold all of their cattle and sheep — everything they owned — to pay for Wu’s chemotherapy.
齐和她丈夫借了价值上万块美元的债，卖掉了所有的牛和羊和家里任何值钱的东西，付孩子的化疗费用。
"It didn’t work. He would wake up with foam all over his mouth and he couldn’t settle down," says Qi, sobbing. "He was in so much pain. He finally asked me to open the window. He said ‘Just let me jump, mom.’”
“一点也不起作用。他醒来满嘴都是泡沫，不能躺下。非常痛苦。他最后让我打开窗户。说，‘妈妈，让我跳下去吧。’”。齐香英已是满脸泪水。
On Feb. 16, 2012, Wu Wenyong died in his hospital bed. He was 15.
2012年二月十六号，吴文用在医院过世，那年他十五岁。
“There are a lot of sad stories of pollution victims all over China," says Ma Tianjie, who works for Greenpeace China.
中国有许多环境污染的悲惨的故事，受害者各地都有。绿色和平组织的马天洁说。
In a recent trip to Xinglong, the village where the Wu family lives, Ma found at least 30 other villagers among 500 who had been diagnosed with cancer. Even the government has started referring to these places as cancer villages.
在最近的一次去吴书良家的那个兴隆村，马天洁发现五百人口的村里起码有三十人得了癌症。甚至中国政府开始用“癌症村”称呼这些村子。
In 2010, Chinese journalist Deng Fei published a map highlighting a number of China's 'cancer villages.' Stella Xie translated this version of the map.
在2010年，中国记者邓飞发表了一张地图，标示了一些中国的癌症村。斯特腊。谢将它翻译成下面这张图。
Significant implications
Officials are worried, because villages like these supply China with its food.
后果严重
中国政府官员很担心，因为象这些村子供应者中国的食物。
"I think the implications are significant," Ma says. "A lot of these heavy metals will be accumulated in food crops grown near the pollution site."
“我认为后果很严重”马说，许多在这些污染地长大庄稼会积累这些重金属。
Five years ago, a soil survey taken from rice in three of China’s largest agricultural provinces shocked Chinese consumers.
五年前，在三个中国最大的农业省进行的泥土抽样测试震惊了中国的消费者。
http://bcove.me/qcdwting
Sixty percent of the rice samples showed excessive amounts of cadmium, a heavy metal that causes bone and kidney damage. At the time, Chinese scientists openly discussed the widespread contamination of China’s food supply. But these days, they’re not talking. Several scientists declined interviews with Marketplace. That’s because late last year, China’s communist party declared national soil surveys ‘state secrets.’
60%的大米含有超标的镉，一种会伤害肾脏和骨头的重金属。那时，中国的科学家公开讨论中国广泛的食品污染。但是现在，他们禁口不提了。一些科学家不愿意接受“市场”的采访。因为去年年末，中国政府将国家泥土测试例为“国家机密”。
Revealing China’s ‘state secrets’ can send you to prison.
泄露国家机密是要坐牢的。
American scientist Peter Green says in the case of Chromium-6, which polluted the soil in Xinglong Village, it’s undoubtedly been absorbed by the rice grown there.
美国研究员彼得。格林说Chromium-6（六介铬化物）污染的兴隆村，哪里产的水稻会吸收这些污染物。
"Rice, like all plants, takes up water from its roots," Green says, "and Chromium-6 — hexavalent chromium — is very soluble in water, and will get into the plants. And that’s unfortunate, because it can get into the food chain and be eaten by humans or perhaps other animals.”
“水稻，和其他一切植物，从根上吸收水分。Chromium-6（六介铬化物）是非常溶水的，会被植物吸收。非常不幸，它会污染食物链，会被人和动物吃下去。” 彼得解释道。
Back in Xinglong village, the 300-million-pound hill of Chromium-6 waste is now gone. The company that created it, LuLiang Peace Technology, removed the waste a few months ago. But farmer Wu Shuliang says his well water is still contaminated. I ask him to show me.
现在的兴隆村里的那座3亿磅的铬化物废物山已经搬走了。那家生产这废物的厂，鲁良和平技术，几个月前把它搬走了。但吴书良告诉我，他的水井仍然被污染着。我让他给我看他的井。
Wu grabs a 10-foot long stick and dips it down into the well.
吴拿起10尺长的杆子，伸到井里。
When he pulls it up, the end of the stick is covered with a thick, mustard-yellow chemical sludge.
当他把杆子拿出来后，杆子头上一层厚厚，芥末醬黄色的浓流体。
Marketplace contacted LuLiang Peace Technology, and the factory manager, Mr. Qian, spoke to us. After we told him we were a news organization, he hung up and didn’t answer any more calls. The local government also ignored Marketplace’s repeated requests for interviews.
“市场”联系了鲁良和平技术和厂方经理钱先生。在我们告诉他我们是新闻媒体后，他摔掉了电话，任我们怎么打也不再接我们的电话。当地政府也拒绝了我们多次采访要求。
Farmers Qi Xianyi and Wu Shuliang still grow rice in the yellow contaminated water they pump from their well. Their family doesn’t dare eat it.
农民齐香英和吴书良仍然用那黄色污染的水井里抽水种水稻。他们的家人不敢吃那水稻。
Instead, they sell it to others.
他们将那水稻卖给别人。
"We don’t have a choice," says Qi. "We lost all our money paying the medical bills for our son. Now he’s dead, and we’re broke. We know the rice is dangerous. We sell it to vendors from other provinces in China who travel here to purchase it."
“我们没办法。我们分文没有，所有的钱都化在儿子的医疗上了。现在他已死了。我们也破产了。我们知道这水稻很危险。我们卖给外省的商人。他们到这里来买水稻。”齐讲。
And those vendors sell this contaminated rice throughout China. The situation seems hopeless, but lately there have been encouraging developments.
这些商人把污染的水稻贩卖到全国各地。情况看来毫无希望。但是，最近有些鼓舞人的进展。
A week ago, a top official of China’s Ministry of the Environment said the soil survey currently deemed ‘a state secret’ will soon be released to the public.
一星期前，一个中国环境部的最高官员讲被例为国家机密的土地测试数据会向公众公开。
A local judge has also agreed to review the case of Luliang Peace Technology’s contamination of Xinglong Village. If the judge rules against the factory, millions of dollars would be set aside for villagers like the Wu family who have lost loved ones.
But Qi says the ruling may come too late for her family. Her father-in-law is dying. And her 12-year-old son has recently developed a chronic cough that sounds like his brother's before he got cancer.
一个当地的法官也同意审查鲁良和平技术污染兴隆村的案子。假如法官判厂方有罪，会为象吴家那些失去亲人的受害者设置一笔基金。但是齐讲判决已经太晚了。她的公公也已病重，她的十二岁的儿子也严重咳嗽，很象他哥哥得癌症时的那种咳嗽。
The problem is, Qi says, her family has so much debt from treating her first son’s cancer that now they can’t afford to bring their remaining son to the doctor for help.
问题是，齐讲， 她的家庭背上了沉重的债给大儿子治病，现在他们已经无力再给唯一的孩子看病了。
About the author
Rob Schmitz is Marketplace’s China correspondent in Shanghai.
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amans232 - Apr 16, 2013
Is there anything we can do to help? I would be willing to send some money. Please advise.
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Rob Schmitz - Apr 16, 2013
Thanks for your comment. Please email me offline: rschmitz@marketplace.org
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Realism - Apr 16, 2013
I wonder how Rob Schmitz feels about living in China and eating the food there |
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发表于 2013-4-18 11:35:15
发表于 2013-4-20 12:48:58