On a recent day in Hebei, a thick carpet of gray smog blanketed the province and the smell of sulphur hung in the air. Near one factory outside the city of Tangshan, a worker on a bicycle angrily confronted journalists trying to photograph smoke and steam billowing into the air. “Recently journalists have been complaining about pollution, and all the factory owners have come under pressure,” he said. “We are very afraid they will lay us off. Each worker has a family to raise. We have no land, or other industry. Everything we have depends on steel factories.” But in the village of Wushizhuang, near the Zhengda steel works, locals were as angry as anyone about the pollution that was harming their lungs and ruining their crops — even though many had relatives employed in the surrounding factories. One man said the apples and pears in his orchard grew so black with grime that they could never be sold, while another wiped thick black dust off a car that he said had been washed the day before.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 04:23:01 +0000
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