China's soil pollution is widespread and poses health risks. A government study found 19.4% of China's farmland is contaminated by heavy metals and toxins from industrial pollution and pesticide overuse. Farmers and residents near polluted fields report high rates of illness. Toxic cadmium levels have been found in rice crops, threatening food safety. While China has acknowledged the problem, addressing widespread soil remediation will be difficult and take decades.

1. Photographer: Sim Chi Yin/The New York Times via Redux
A farmer prepares his land to plant sweet potatoes beside a lead factory at Chenjiawan
in the Hunan Province of China on Dec. 3, 2013
China’s air and water pollution is more visible than its soil pollution and more often
makes headlines. But recent government studies underscore the worrying extent of
heavy-metal pollution tainting China’s agricultural lands—and its food supply.
A new study from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center examines the
results of nearly 5,000 soil samples from vegetable plots across China. Roughly a
quarter of the sampled areas were polluted. The most common problem is high soil
concentrations of heavy metals—such as cadmium, lead, and zinc—which leach out
from open mines and industrial sites and into surrounding farmland.
Plants grown in tainted soil can absorb heavy metals. People who ingest high levels of
heavy metals over an extended time can develop organ damage and weakened bones,
among other medical conditions.
Story: China's Plan to Export Pollution
Another recent study by the nonprofit Changsha Shuguang Environmental Charity
Development Center found that farmland in the southern Hunan province contains
more than 200 times the level the government deems safe. Hunan is one of China’s
most important rice-growing provinces.

2. In April, China’s environmental ministry released the results of a 5-year nationwide
soil study, which found that 19.4 percent of the country’s farmland was dangerously
polluted.
Soil Pollution in China Still a State
Secret Despite Recent Survey
By Angel Hsu& WilliamMiao | June 18, 2014
|
On March 17, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of
Land and Resources released the first-ever results of a nationwide soil pollution
survey that took place from 2005 to 2013. International media have commended the
release, which revealed startling statistics such as one-fifth of arable land is polluted
and contaminated with inorganic chemicals like cadmium, nickel and arsenic. On the
surface, it seems, soil pollution, which was once a “state secret,” is no longer.
Overall, the report admits that the situation is “not optimistic.” The survey further
reveals that inorganic pollutants are the primary contaminants in China’s soil. Chronic
exposure to cadmium can lead to kidney disease, and was recently found to be present
in almost half of the rice tested in the city of Guangzhou, the capital city in
Southeastern Guangdong province. Arsenic, which is a water contaminant, can lead to
skin lesions and skin cancer. These pollutants result from industrial waste from
factories and mines as well as automobile exhaust. Irrigation using polluted water
resulting from the use of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as raising livestock, can
also cause soil contamination.

3. Arable land around the urban fringe in China. (Cao Chunhai/Thinkstock)
Soil pollution is a serious concern in China, particularly with respect to the human
health implications resulting from contaminated water and food. However, while this
report represents a significant step toward greater transparency with respect to
pollution in China, it still lags in some key aspects and raises questions as to what can
be done about the problem, the full extent of which is still unknown.
Breaking down the soil statistics
My colleagues and I reviewed the survey results and relevant regulations on soil and
found that there are major gaps. First, it should be noted that none of the raw data or
full survey results were released to the public, and likely will not be. When the
government completed its first national pollution census in 2010, the raw data were
never publicly released, despite findings that revealed a doubling in the extent of
water pollution.
Second, careful attention should be paid to how exactly the statistics and findings are
worded in the report. While the headlines suggest 16.1 percent, or one-fifth, of soil is
contaminated, the report is more nuanced. According to our translation, the
government surveyed “approximately 6.3 million square kilometers” of arable land,
including woodlands, grasslands, unused and construction lands, of which 16.1
percent of surveyed points (点位 or dianwei) “exceed limits.” Exactly what these
limits are was not made explicit in the report itself, but are available here (in
Chinese). While a subtle distinction, it should be noted that the report actually does
not go as far as specifying the total area of land that is contaminated, but rather a
percentage of sampled points.

4. While the sampling techniques do have scientific grounding, exactly how the survey
was conducted was not included in the initial report. Instead, government officials
held a press conference (in Chinese) to explain some of the results of the survey.
Essentially, the total surveyed area of 6.3 million square kilometers was divided into 8
kilometer by 8 kilometer plots (an area larger than Manhattan), each containing one
point. Officials admitted that the soil survey results only provide an aggregate, macro
picture of soil quality in China because the variability of conditions makes it difficult
to be comprehensive or accurate using only points. What’s disturbing is that some
areas could potentially be more polluted than these sampling points describe. It’s akin
to saying that the entire soil quality of Manhattan is homogenous; the actual situation
could be much worse than what these statistics show.
What now?
The twelfth Five-Year Plan includes a 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) commitment to
address soil pollution. However, compared to the amount that the State Council
approved last July to tackle air pollution—$277 billion—the amount allocated to soil
seems to be a drop in the bucket. Part of the reason for this discrepancy is the lack of
pubic awareness about soil pollution; the Chinese are comparatively much more
aware of the dangers of air and water pollution.
Remediation of soil is also difficult, both from a technical and regulatory perspective.
China lacks any type of soil remediation standard and regulations for pollution levels
in soil are outdated. As a result, a lot of polluted farmland goes untreated. The
potential consequences for agriculture could certainly threaten food provision in
China, where in December 2013 the country’s Ministry of Land Resources deemed
some 8.24 million acres of arable land (around one-fourth of the total) unfit for
farming.
While the initial soil pollution survey is a start, it’s not enough. It took almost nine
years for the government to reach such meager and incomplete results. More details
about the spatial location of sampling sites and the levels of exceedance for individual
points, as well as the release of the raw survey results, would provide better clarity
and much-needed transparency to understand how prevalent the problem may be. As
the survey stands, there is too much left open to interpretation. Without access to the
full raw data and results of the survey, it may be impossible to know exactly what the
government in China may be nuancing with these statistics. Such numbers, while
providing a starting point, may be hiding a much more dangerous truth beneath their
surface.
Peter Hirsch, a Masters of Environmental Management candidate of the Yale School
of Forestry and Environmental Studies, designed the following infographic.

6. Website 3
Soil pollution is a 'severe
problem' in China
Soil pollution has been one of the side effects of three decades of
breakneck economic expansion in China, raising concerns over food
security and people's health in the world's most populous nation.
China's troubles with air and water pollution are widely known with its smog-
clouded cities and chemical-filled rivers drawing international attention.
However, there is another, less visible consequence of the whirlwind GDP growth
the country has experienced over the past three decades: soil pollution.
"Rapid industrialization has left a legacy of soil pollution that is damaging health
and livelihoods in villages across China," concluded a recent investigation titled
"The victims of China's soil pollution crisis," jointly conducted by Yale
Environment 360 and chinadialogue, a non-profit organization based in London
and Beijing.

7. However, soil pollution is not only affecting the health and well-being of Chinese
citizens, it is also putting the nation's food security at risk. A Chinese government
report released in April this year said that 16.1 percent of the country's soil was
polluted.
The figure for contaminated farmland is even higher, 19.4 percent. The main
contaminants are heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, nickel and arsenic, among
others.
19.4 percent of the farmland in China is contaminated, according to the
government
The areas mainly affected include the country's industrial belt along the eastern
coast as well as inland provinces in central and western China. Experts say the
main sources of this kind of pollution are industrial waste seeping from factories
onto the soil, and agricultural activities such as the application of fertilizers and
the use of polluted water for irrigation. The level of pollution has raised questions
about the quality of food produced in the contaminated regions.
Serious health risks
Miao Zhang, senior toxic campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, explains that soil
pollution can cause underground water contamination, thus damaging the quality
and quantity of crops. The contaminants, in turn, tend to "accumulate in the
human body through food chain," Miao told DW.
But despite the awareness of what pollution can do, poor people have little choice
but to eat locally produced food, highlights the chinadialogue report. The
organization's founder and editor, Isabel Hilton, said in a DW interview that

8. serious health issues, including cancer and diseases infecting the nervous system,
could be caused by soil pollution.
DW recommends
'Millions of hectares of China's arable land are polluted'
With 19 percent of China's farmland contaminated, agriculture and the livelihood
of rural communities are being badly hit. Soil pollution is an issue often
obfuscated by the authorities, says China expert Isabel Hilton. (24.07.2014)
China's rubber boom obliterates southern forests
US and China agree to cooperate more closely to fight global
warming
Smog makes Beijing barely suitable for living
"Like many conditions with environmental causes, the exact chain of consequence
in any case is hard to establish. But statistical and epidemiological evidence
makes a strong case for the relationship between pollution and ill-health," she
pointed out.
Soil pollution in China has attracted little public attention, in spite of the health
threats. Until recently, the government also resisted media attempts to spotlight
local cancer epidemics in the country's newly industrial areas, the report claims.
Indeed, the Chinese government previously refused to divulge information on soil
pollution terming it a "state secret."
A severe problem

9. But in February 2013, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) finally
admitted that "cancer villages" existed in China. The chinadialogue report cites
the estimates of some civil society groups which put the number of such villages
at around 450, and that the figure is on the rise.
Describing the pollution problem as "severe and urgent," Greenpeace's Miao says
that it is hard to understand the reasons behind the government's reluctance to
share information. "But hiding the data did make people wonder whether it was
because the problem was too terrible to be known," she added.
Analysts, however, agree that Beijing has started taking measures to confront the
problem, although it still has a long way to go. "Many polluting factories have
been shut down in central and eastern parts of the country. Unfortunately, this is
less true of western China where there are thousands of toxic sites that need to be
contained and we are still not seeing the necessary level of pollution control,"
explained Hilton.
Furthermore, experts call for more government focus on crop safety, demanding
that contaminated sites should be taken out of food production chain. But getting
rid of the pollution is not only about the removal of contaminants, it also involves
the restoration of soil health, which is required to ensure food safety and people's
health. The need of the hour is a reorientation of the Chinese development model,
which has succeeded in lifting millions of people out of poverty over the last three
decades.
Hidden costs
The problem is that the emphasis was on very rapid growth and little attention
was paid to the negative effects, which economists call externalities, stressed
Hilton. "These effects are showing up in health impacts, food safety, food security
and water scarcity as well as contamination.

10. Air and water pollution in China have drawn more international attention than
soil contamination
All of these have economic impacts, so looking only at GDP growth does not give
you the true picture," the expert underlined.
This view is shared by Greenpeace campaigner Miao, who argues that treating
one million hectares of polluted soil will cost at least 140 billion yuan (22.6 billion
USD). "The economic development in the past 30 years did make China a good
fortune. However, there is already evidence showing that there is huge debt
behind the prosperity."
Website 4:
China's farmers, consumers feeling the
effects of widespread soil pollution
Governmentstudyfound20% offarmlandistainted by lead,cadmium, pesticides
and othertoxins
A government study released last spring found that nearly 20 per cent of China's
farmland is tainted by toxic metals and pesticides, and that pollution is making those
who farm the land and consume the food grown on it sick, say environmental activists
and some farmers.

11. The threat from pollution to China's food supply has been overshadowed by public
alarm at smog and water contamination but is gaining attention following scandals
over tainted rice and other crops.
The government was criticized last year when it refused to release results of
a nationwide survey of soil pollution, declaring them a state secret.
 Millions of acres of China farmland too polluted to grow food
This spring, it backtracked and released the study, which shows that the amount of
contaminated farming soil is roughly the equivalent of all the farmland in Manitoba,
Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces combined.
Pesticides, metals and other toxins taint countryside
Industrialization has transformed China's landscape, and for some, the price of
factories, mines and megacities has been high.
Complaints by farmers in China about lead and other pollutants in their soil and water
supplies have led to protests against factories. (CBC)
The explosive growth of Chinese industry, overuse of farm chemicals and lax
environmental enforcement have left swathes of the countryside tainted by lead,
cadmium, pesticides and other toxins.

12. Investigations by the Ministry of Environmental Protection have found "moderate to
severe pollution" on 3.3 million hectares.
Han Jinchao is a resident in a village in Hunan province that is surrounded by toxic
farming soil. He is sick and has not left his home in six years.
"My legs, I don't feel any strength. My hands are the same. It's even hard for me to
carry a bowl when I eat," he said.
There is no proof that the soil is what has made Han sick, but many of his neighbours
are ill, too, and they all believe it is from toxic soil.
"There are people with cancer. Also, some with diabetes. Also, many have cadmium
levels that are higher than normal," said one of Han's neighbours.
High levels of cadmium in rice
Greenpeace environmental activist Wi Yixiu says the toxicity in collected rice
samples is extreme.
"All the samples collected from this area were heavily contaminated by cadmium.
Sometimes, the cadmium level is 20 times higher than the national standard," she
said.
Cadmium is a carcinogenic metal that can cause kidney damage and other health
problems and can be absorbed into rice, the country's staple grain.

13. Chinese farmers say they are getting sick from working on polluted land. (CBC)
In May last year, authorities launched an investigation of rice mills in southern China
after tests found almost half of rice supplies sold in Guangzhou, a major city, were
contaminated with cadmium.
In February 2013, the newspaper Nanfang Daily reported tens of thousands of tons of
cadmium-tainted rice was sold to noodle makers in southern China from 2009 to this
year. It said government inspectors declared it fit only for production of non-food
goods such as industrial alcohol but a trader sold most of the rice to food processors
anyway.
Other toxic substances like lead and arsenic have been found in food as well, and only
in the most extreme cases has the government prohibited using the land for farming.
Every consumer is vulnerable, says Greenpeace
But it will take decades before such soil is no longer toxic.
'EveryconsumerinChinais exposedtothiskindof pollution.Itisnotjusta remote issue.It
can go to everyone'sdiningtable.'- WiYixiu, Greenpeace
The government is working on a long-range plan and expects to spend several billion
dollars a year on the effort but has given few details. Scientists say one possible

14. approach is to plant trees or other vegetation that will absorb heavy metals from the
soil but will not be consumed by humans.
Complaints by farmers about lead and other pollutants in their water supplies have led
to protests against battery factories.
"There have been a lot of scandals with the cadmium rice being found out in certain
provinces and being sold at market," said Yixiu. "Every consumer in China is exposed
to this kind of pollution. It is not just a remote issue. It can go to everyone's dining
table."