Local authorities in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province have denied reports that students at a local school were diagnosed with leukemia as a result of water and soil contamination.
"There was no student diagnosed with leukemia," the Changzhou government asserted in a Monday press release. It admitted that one student had been diagnosed with lymphoma, but insisted it was "two months before the [school's] relocation," news site thepaper.cn reported Tuesday.
The results of physical examinations of students at Changzhou Foreign Languages School (CFLS) in January and February also found that only 133 of the students had abnormal blood parameters, which local doctors said could not be clearly linked to pollution, the China Youth Daily reported.
The response came after students' parents reportedly attributed abnormal blood parameters and illnesses among a total of 493 students to pollution at a construction site north of the school where three chemical factories used to be located.
The level of pollutants detected in the groundwater and soil at the site were excessively above safety standards, China Central Television reported.
Citing water and soil monitoring data and testing results, the Changzhou government said that no large amount of chemicals was detected, thus there is no contamination, according to thepaper.cn.
