Screening Chinese Children for Lead.

On 6 January 2001 China started the first phase of an enormous children's lead screening program in Shenyang, the capital of the northeastern province of Liaoning. All of the city's children under age seven, as well as pregnant women, will have medical examinations to determine if and how they have been affected by lead poisoning. Study participants will also receive lessons on how to protect themselves from lead exposure.

The project, which will also be carried out in seven other provinces, is expected to test 8-10 million children, who are increasingly at risk for lead exposure as China's economy grows and with it transportation and industrial pollution levels. According to the Xinhua News Service, an earlier study conducted in the northern city of Taiyuan found that 64% of the 10,000 children tested had lead concentrations much higher than acceptable limits.