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The China Cancer Villages

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The China Cancer Villages
Shuiman Di

Introduction
In the modern world, cancer has become a common ailment and cause of death for millions of people worldwide, but it is frightening when human settlements are identified with the disease due to the high magnitude at which it strikes the populations. Cancer villages may appear like any other human settlements and people go on with their daily lives as if life was just in its normal state. However, upon scrutiny, these villages have striking characteristics that lead towards the indication that life in these areas may not be normal. In some of these villages, the water from rivers and wells is polluted to the extent that people have to rely on bottled drinking water. In others, some sections that are close to major sources of pollution have been vacated, while other areas are no longer agriculturally productive. In some of these villages, the villagers have turned to dumping garbage into ponds or rivers that are considered ruined by pollution. The level of pollution around the cancer villages has been so rampant that crops die off, fish, shrimp and other water creatures vanish from the rivers, animals become infertile or deformed and children suffer extensively from respiratory diseases. Most of China’s cancer villages have been turned into death pots by the effects of industrial pollution that have increased since 1990s. Therefore, the emergence of China’s cancer villages can be attributed to the rampant industrialization that has been taking place in this nation, failure of government to secure appropriate measures of controlling this pollution, as well as lack of proper systems to offer the necessary protection to rural people. Although China’s pursuit for economic growth has contributed to a relatively high GDP, this growth has also negatively affected society in terms of rampant environmental health issues

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