logo
More Than 200 Children Get Lead Poisoning from Food Served at an Elementary School

More Than 200 Children Get Lead Poisoning from Food Served at an Elementary School

Yahoo13-07-2025
More than 200 young students were found to have high levels of lead in their blood due to paint allegedly being added to their school food
Cake and corn roll sausages served to children at Peixin Kindergarten in the Chinese city of Tianshui caused the high levels, test results showed
Several people, including the school's principal, have since been arrested as the investigation remains ongoingSeveral people have been arrested after more than 200 young students were found to have high levels of lead in their blood due to paint allegedly being added to their food at school.
An investigation was launched into Peixin Kindergarten in the Chinese city of Tianshui on July 1, after authorities received reports from the public of abnormally high levels of lead in the blood of some of the children attending the school, CNN and local outlet CCTV News reported.
According to the city's government report, which was obtained by CCTV News, lead was found in 'three-color red date steamed cake' that was served for breakfast, as well as 'a corn roll sausage" that was provided "for dinner.'
'The lead content of the two samples was 1,052 mg/kg and 1,340 mg/kg, respectively, both exceeding the national food safety standard of 0.5 mg/kg for food contaminants,' the report stated, per the local outlet.
CCTV News added that test results showed that 233 of the 251 children enrolled had abnormal blood lead levels. Nearby schools Weibei Kindergarten, Ci'ai Kindergarten and Mengdi'ai Kindergarten were also tested, but the blood results from those students showed normal levels.
According to the government report, principal Zhu Moulin and Li Moufang, who backed the school financially, allegedly instructed the establishment's kitchen staff to buy paint online and use it in some food production after dilution.
The paint used contained lead with 'packaging clearly marked that it was not edible," the report stated.
Video footage obtained by the U.K.'s Sky News shows a kitchen staff member allegedly pouring the paint into a bowl, before being helped by another staff member to prepare the food.
Moulin, Moufang and eight others were eventually detained on suspicion of producing toxic and harmful food, while two others, whose identities have not been made public, were put on bail pending trial, CCTV News reported.
Peixin Kindergarten obtained a certificate to run the school in 2022, and students were later enrolled in August 2024, the local outlet added.
Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The government report said officials "are deeply saddened by the physical and mental harm caused to the children and parents of Maiji District Peixin Kindergarten."
It added that the investigation into the situation remains ongoing.
Peixin Kindergarten could not immediately be reached by PEOPLE for comment on Sunday, July 13.
Read the original article on People
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Cadence to pay $140m fine for illegal tech exports to China
Cadence to pay $140m fine for illegal tech exports to China

Yahoo

time8 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Cadence to pay $140m fine for illegal tech exports to China

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Cadence Design Systems has agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140m in penalties for exporting semiconductor design tools to a Chinese military university. The company based in San Jose, California, will pay nearly $118m in criminal penalties. This follows its admission of violating export controls by selling electronic design automation (EDA) technology to the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), which is associated with China's Central Military Commission. National Security Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said: 'Cadence has agreed to accept responsibility for unlawfully exporting sensitive semiconductor design tools to a restricted Chinese military university and has implemented a strong export compliance programme to help prevent any further illegal transmission of American technology. 'American ingenuity is one of our Nation's most precious assets, and the National Security Division will vigorously enforce US export control laws to protect the technological advantage we enjoy because of that ingenuity.' NUDT, added to the US Department of Commerce's Entity List in 2015, is believed to have used US-origin components to develop supercomputers for military purposes. From February 2015 to April 2021, Cadence and its subsidiary in China exported EDA tools without obtaining necessary licences, despite knowing NUDT's status on the Entity List. Cadence's court documents reveal employees facilitated exports to NUDT through Central South CAD Center (CSCC), an alias for the Chinese university. The company continued transactions until September 2020 when it ended its relationship with CSCC due to its ties with NUDT. The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) also announced a parallel civil enforcement settlement, with Cadence agreeing to pay over $95m in civil penalties. Further investigation revealed that employees concealed exports' true destination from Cadence's compliance personnel, said the DOJ. The employees also used aliases in communications to avoid detection. Additionally, Cadence transferred contracts from CSCC to Phytium Technology, another entity linked with NUDT. This was before placing Phytium on export hold in March 2021. Following the DOJ and BIS crediting Cadence's payments under the coordinated agreements, the company will pay a total of over $140m in combined net criminal and civil penalties and forfeiture. The resolution awaits approval from a federal judge in the Northern District of California. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and BIS's Office of Export Enforcement conducted investigations into the case. "Cadence to pay $140m fine for illegal tech exports to China" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups
Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups

Yahoo

time9 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups

By Laurie Chen BEIJING (Reuters) -Sexually exploitative images of Chinese women were shared in encrypted Telegram chat groups with hundreds of thousands of users, Chinese media reported, triggering widespread outrage online. A Chinese-language Telegram chat group named "MaskPark tree hole forum" shared images of women secretly taken or filmed in locations, including public toilets, with more than 100,000 anonymous users in China and overseas, said Chinese state-run newspaper Southern Daily, which first reported the chat groups' existence last week. Some users posted private images of their current or ex-girlfriends and female family members, the report said, and that some footage of women secretly filmed using pinhole cameras in public spaces was being sold in the chat groups. Hashtags related to the issue on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo gained more than 270 million views on Tuesday. "It's truly frightening how secret filming has infiltrated everyday life," read one comment. China has strict obscenity laws and regularly scrubs content deemed pornographic from its heavily-controlled domestic internet, so the scale of the image sharing has shocked many in China. People must use VPN software to access Telegram, which is blocked in China. Other Telegram sub-forums targeting Chinese-speaking users with pornographic content had as many as 900,000 members, the Southern Daily said. "My ex-boyfriend secretly took photos of me during sex, posted my private photos to the group without my permission and publicised my social media accounts," a female victim who was not named told the newspaper. She was alerted to the forum in May through an anonymous tip-off, adding that many of the chat group messages self-deleted and the images could not be saved or screenshotted due to the settings in the Telegram chat. Chatroom users also sold everyday objects, such as incense holders, fitted with pinhole cameras to secretly film women, according to chat records published in the report. "This has heightened the concerns of many women, as voyeuristic incidents seem to be ubiquitous," said Huang Simin, a Chinese lawyer who specialises in sexual violence cases. "I've noticed a general sense of powerlessness (women feel with regards to legal protections), a feeling that there's no effective way to address such incidents." The main MaskPark forum has been taken down but some smaller sub-forums remain active on Telegram, the Southern Daily said. "The sharing of non-consensual pornography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered," a Telegram spokesperson told Reuters. "Moderators proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including non-consensual pornography." SOUTH KOREA SCANDAL Chinese social media commenters likened the incident to South Korea's "Nth room" scandal, where operators of pay-to-view Telegram chatrooms blackmailed at least 74 women, including underage girls, into sharing sexually explicit images of themselves with tens of thousands of users. The case sparked a national outcry in South Korea and the main ringleader was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2020. "Compared to the 'Nth room' incident, the evil of MaskPark is even more normalised and diffuse. There is no single principal offender and users share images for 'pleasure' not profit," read one Weibo post with more than 14,000 likes. Chatroom users who posted images can be investigated under Chinese law for "producing, selling and disseminating obscene materials for profit" as well as "illegally using special equipment for eavesdropping and taking non-consensual photos," said Huang. But the offences of secret filming and photography carry relatively light punishments if the content is not deemed obscene, she added, with a fine of up to 500 yuan ($69.68) and 10 days' administrative detention for serious cases. It is also difficult for Chinese police to punish offenders over MaskPark because Telegram is encrypted and hosted overseas, said a Chinese legal researcher who requested anonymity for reasons of sensitivity. "Criminal cases require a high evidence threshold, so disseminating intimate images often remains difficult to prosecute due to insufficient evidence," they said. "There are no specific regulations regarding the dissemination of intimate images of adult women." Both lawyers called for stronger government regulatory oversight of gender-based abuse on online platforms. "I hope that China will develop criminal laws to regulate carrying out voyeurism and sexual violence through visual imagery in the future," said Huang. ($1 = 7.1755 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups
Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups

By Laurie Chen BEIJING (Reuters) -Sexually exploitative images of Chinese women were shared in encrypted Telegram chat groups with hundreds of thousands of users, Chinese media reported, triggering widespread outrage online. A Chinese-language Telegram chat group named "MaskPark tree hole forum" shared images of women secretly taken or filmed in locations, including public toilets, with more than 100,000 anonymous users in China and overseas, said Chinese state-run newspaper Southern Daily, which first reported the chat groups' existence last week. Some users posted private images of their current or ex-girlfriends and female family members, the report said, and that some footage of women secretly filmed using pinhole cameras in public spaces was being sold in the chat groups. Hashtags related to the issue on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo gained more than 270 million views on Tuesday. "It's truly frightening how secret filming has infiltrated everyday life," read one comment. China has strict obscenity laws and regularly scrubs content deemed pornographic from its heavily-controlled domestic internet, so the scale of the image sharing has shocked many in China. People must use VPN software to access Telegram, which is blocked in China. Other Telegram sub-forums targeting Chinese-speaking users with pornographic content had as many as 900,000 members, the Southern Daily said. "My ex-boyfriend secretly took photos of me during sex, posted my private photos to the group without my permission and publicised my social media accounts," a female victim who was not named told the newspaper. She was alerted to the forum in May through an anonymous tip-off, adding that many of the chat group messages self-deleted and the images could not be saved or screenshotted due to the settings in the Telegram chat. Chatroom users also sold everyday objects, such as incense holders, fitted with pinhole cameras to secretly film women, according to chat records published in the report. "This has heightened the concerns of many women, as voyeuristic incidents seem to be ubiquitous," said Huang Simin, a Chinese lawyer who specialises in sexual violence cases. "I've noticed a general sense of powerlessness (women feel with regards to legal protections), a feeling that there's no effective way to address such incidents." The main MaskPark forum has been taken down but some smaller sub-forums remain active on Telegram, the Southern Daily said. "The sharing of non-consensual pornography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered," a Telegram spokesperson told Reuters. "Moderators proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including non-consensual pornography." SOUTH KOREA SCANDAL Chinese social media commenters likened the incident to South Korea's "Nth room" scandal, where operators of pay-to-view Telegram chatrooms blackmailed at least 74 women, including underage girls, into sharing sexually explicit images of themselves with tens of thousands of users. The case sparked a national outcry in South Korea and the main ringleader was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2020. "Compared to the 'Nth room' incident, the evil of MaskPark is even more normalised and diffuse. There is no single principal offender and users share images for 'pleasure' not profit," read one Weibo post with more than 14,000 likes. Chatroom users who posted images can be investigated under Chinese law for "producing, selling and disseminating obscene materials for profit" as well as "illegally using special equipment for eavesdropping and taking non-consensual photos," said Huang. But the offences of secret filming and photography carry relatively light punishments if the content is not deemed obscene, she added, with a fine of up to 500 yuan ($69.68) and 10 days' administrative detention for serious cases. It is also difficult for Chinese police to punish offenders over MaskPark because Telegram is encrypted and hosted overseas, said a Chinese legal researcher who requested anonymity for reasons of sensitivity. "Criminal cases require a high evidence threshold, so disseminating intimate images often remains difficult to prosecute due to insufficient evidence," they said. "There are no specific regulations regarding the dissemination of intimate images of adult women." Both lawyers called for stronger government regulatory oversight of gender-based abuse on online platforms. "I hope that China will develop criminal laws to regulate carrying out voyeurism and sexual violence through visual imagery in the future," said Huang. ($1 = 7.1755 Chinese yuan renminbi)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store