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Made in China Comes at a Price: Cancer Villages Essay

Decent Essays
“Made in China” Comes at a Price: Cancer Villages China has overtaken Germany as the world’s top exporter of goods, which marks another breakthrough in China’s rise to the top and its ever growing economic influence. As China’s export rates rise to the highest in the world, so does its pollution. Judith Shapiro, the director of the Masters in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development for the School of International Service at American University, states that with “20 of the World’s 30 most polluted cities [residing] in China” it is an easy task to see the severity of pollution (Sharpiro). In order to rise to its high economic position China’s government ignores pollution regulations, allowing the release of waste into the air and…show more content…
Doctors at a hospital in the Jiangsu province blame the girl’s lung cancer on pollution. China’s pollution rates are high due to exhaust from cars, the burning of coal, and factory emissions. Since the economic boom the Chinese now own more than 120 million cars, while the United States only owns sixty two million. These high amounts of pollution from the exhaust has even higher effects on the health of Chinese citizens. Even with these dangerous amounts of car pollution most of the blame rests on the country’s large consumption of coal. China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined, leaving auto emissions accounting for only twenty five percent of the problem. The World Resources Institute discovered that particle matter and Sulfur dioxide, both produced by burning coal, surpass World Health Organization standards in the majority of Chinese cities. In the northern city of Yancheng, a chemical plant turned the villages of Dongjin into a cancer village within a few years. Although China is armed with the world’s best environmental laws and regulations, its government faces huge challenges when it comes to enforcing the laws. There are many reason the laws remain unenforced, money being one, cutting corners on enforcement being another, so the pollution continues to worsen. The smog seen lurking over the streets of China is caused by the emissions of particle matter and these emissions contribute to the rising risks
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