OT: Hong Kong: Nine Factories Shut Down for Cyanide Dumping Investigation

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Hong Kong: Nine Factories Shut Down for Cyanide Dumping Investigation

The Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) - Chinese authorities shut down nine factories pending an investigation of cyanide-dumping in a river in a southern province that borders Hong Kong, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Beijiang River in Guangdong province, where waste containing cyanide was allegedly dumped, is a source of drinking water for millions of people downstream of the electroplating factories in the Nanjiang Industrial Park in Sihui, 37 miles west of Guangzhou, the South China Morning Post reported.

Jianlibao, one of China's largest soft-drink manufacturers, also draws water from a source downstream, the report said.

Zheng Helong, owner of the $38 million industrial park, was quoted as denying reports of the river's pollution.

Guangdong's director of environmental protection, who was quoted in China's state-run media as saying his department mishandled the situation, was replaced last week, the report said.

Wang Yingkun's removal was reportedly part of a provincial job-cutting program, the newspaper said. A Hong Kong investor in one of the factories denied responsibility for the pollution, the report said. Leung Yuan-kai, president of Yuan-kai Industries, was quoted as saying he and other investors would demand compensation if the factories were not reopened.

The report didn't say when the cyanide dumping occurred

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIJNNEO65C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 27, 2000

Answers

MMMMMMmmmmm good, I love the smell of cyanide in the morning. Maybe that's why biotech stocks are taking off like a rocket. We need to research for a gene so that cyanide is good and good for us, like drinking milk. Can you picture it, your favorite sports hero with a cyanide mustache (what color would that be?)

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 27, 2000.

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