Rural industries and water pollution in China

Wang, Mark; Webber, Michael; Finlayson, Brian

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.12.019

Cited by 237 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The results indicate that the grain production in the provinces containing the most cancer villages accounts for 57.8% of national total grain production, while the rice yield in these areas accounts for 64.8% of the total rice yield and wheat yield accounts for 81.0% of the total wheat yield, maize yield accounts for 41.2% of the total maize yield (Table S6). China's encouragement of the development of township and village industries in the 1980s has caused severe pollution in these areas (Wang et al, 2008a), with water shortages aggravating pollution in Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces which coincide with the locations of many cancer villages.…”

Section: Figure 4 Distribution Of Cancer Villages and Major Rivers Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of soil and water pollution on food safety and health risks in China

Lü

Shi

Wang

et al. 2015

Environment International

926

318

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Tieyu. 2015. Impacts of soil and water pollution on food safety and health risks in China. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V.This version available http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/509736/ NERC has developed NORA to enable users to access research outputs wholly or partially funded by NERC. Copyright and other rights for material on this site are retained by the rights owners. Users should read the terms and conditions of use of this material at http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/policies.html#access NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Environment International. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Environment International, 77. 5-15. 10.1016International, 77. 5-15. 10. /j.envint.2014 www.elsevier.com/ Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. Impacts of Soil and Water Pollution on Food Safety and Health Risks in China AbstractEnvironmental pollution and food safety are two of the most important issues of our time. Soil and water pollution, in particular, have historically impacted on food safety which represents an important threat to human health. Nowhere has that situation been more complex and challenging than in China, where a combination of pollution and an increasing food safety risk have affected a large part of the population. Water scarcity, pesticide over-application, and chemical pollutants are considered to be the most important factors impacting on food safety in China. Inadequate quantity and quality of surface water resources in China have led to the long-term use of waste-water irrigation to fulfill the water requirements for agricultural production. In some regions this has caused serious agricultural land and food pollution, especially for heavy metals. It is important, therefore, that issues threatening food safety such as combined pesticide residues and heavy metal pollution are addressed to reduce risks to human health. The increasing negative effects on food safety from water and soil pollution have put more people at risk of carcinogenic diseases, potentially contributing to 'cancer villages' which appear to correlate strongly with the main food producing areas. Currently in China, food safety policies are not integrated with soil and water pollution management policies. Here, a comprehensive map of both soil and water pollution threats to food safety in China is presented and integrated policies addressing soil and water pollution for achieving food safety are suggested to provide a holistic approach.

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Section: Figure 4 Distribution Of Cancer Villages and Major Rivers Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of soil and water pollution on food safety and health risks in China

Lü

Shi

Wang

et al. 2015

Environment International

926

318

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Although in principle firms that failed to comply with environmental regulations risked incurring noncompliance penalties and revoking of their operating permits (Weng and Lin, 2011;Smallbone and Welter, 2001), in the practice of rural China application remains limited. Especially in the case of pollution from "key protected firms" local enforcement was powerless due to dependence on the local government (Wang et al, 2008;Van Rooij and Lo, 2010;Stevens et al, 2013), and the career paths of Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) leaders (Kostka, 2013;Liu et al, 2012). Pressures from higher level governments and agencies, the public, and international economic relations, put pressure on the lax chemical risk management through a closed and protective relationship of local governments and SMEs.…”

Section: Research Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the environmental costs of China's rural industrialization are enormous (Wang et al, 2008). Rural industries have been and still are notorious for their air and water pollution, for their inefficient use and waste of natural resources, for the destruction of the ecological environment and for damaging human health (Zhang, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why small and medium chemical companies continue to pose severe environmental risks in rural China

Zhang

Mol

et al. 2014

Environmental Pollution

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a b s t r a c tIn China, rural chemical SMEs are often believed to still largely operate below the sustainability radar. This paper investigates to what extent and how chemical SMEs are already experiencing pressure to improve their environmental performance, using an in-depth case study in Jasmine County, Hebei province. The results show that local residents had rather low trust in the environmental improvement promises made by the enterprises and the local government, and disagreed with the proposed improvement plans. Although the power of local residents to influence decision making remained limited, the chemical SMEs started to feel increasing pressures to clean up their business, from governments, local communities and civil society, and international value chain stakeholders. Notwithstanding these mounting pressures chemical SME's environmental behavior and performance has not changed radically for the better. The strong economic ties between local county governments and chemical SMEs continue to be a major barrier for stringent environmental regulation.

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“…This is partly due to differences in the stringency of environmental policies between rural and urban areas (Engardio, 2009;Su & Ma, 2006). Furthermore, enforcing environmental regulations tends to be harder in rural areas (Wang, Webber, Finlayson, & Barnett, 2008), mainly due to the low densities in rural industries and the insufficiency of environmental monitoring (Swanson, Kuhn, & Xu, 2001;Tilt, 2007;Wang, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%