Experts want pollution action

Scientists in Guangdong province called for the urgent protection of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) yesterday in response to research that shows more than half the ecosystem is now polluted.

The experts used the 40th Earth Day to point to a study by the Ecological and Earth Research Institute of Guangdong province that found that pollution in the province, and especially in the PRD, threatened to make some areas barren.

Nearly 70 percent of soil samples had abnormally high mercury levels and 40 percent contained high levels of cadmium.

The study also found 40 percent of the farmland in the region had been polluted by different heavy metals, including mercury, cadmium, arsenic, copper, and nickel.

"Some areas that have been polluted seriously will become infertile," Wan Hongfu, a researcher at the institute, said yesterday.

He said most of the pollutants were the result of sewage and discharge from chemical factories.

Other sources of contamination include pesticide residue and organic pollutants.

Wan said land pollution is a more serious problem than either air or water pollution because those types of contamination can be improved during the span of a few years, while cleansing land can take hundreds of years.

Moreover, medical research suggests that 80 to 90 percent of cancer patients became ill because of environmental pollution, he said.

Wan called for more control of emissions from factories.

In the meantime, high tech companies have realized the importance of protecting the environment and started to put their effort into protecting the earth, he said.

"We think of every day as Earth Day," said Rene T. Co, general manager of Procter and Gamble (P&G) Greater China External Relations.

The world's leading chemical company has saved hundreds of kilograms of papers and a large amount of energy through its sustainability efforts, said Co.

"I hope more companies will realize the importance of protecting the earth. This is not something only big companies can do," Wan added.

Yesterday was the 40th Earth Day. The Ministry of Land and Resources set the theme of the day as "Understanding of the Earth, Sustainable Development - to know more about our home".

The day was designed to promote awareness and appreciation for the environment and was started by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970.

Source: China Daily