Comments on Cancer Villages Map

Awareness truly can change the way people look at things. It's not just a cliche that knowing what reality is like in less privileged situations increases appreciation for what we do have when taken to heart.

Five years ago I learned about China's Cancer villages, and it has never left the "featured" list on this blog since. It is a terrifying, and moving report. But what I didn't know was that Deng Fei, a Chinese journalist, published a map of these cancer villages in China. Today, English-readers have a translated version of that map available to explore here:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1R70M9vbPN104K-YqFlUnK1xUDoY&hl=en_US&ll=30.187076758346265%2C112.28646500000013&z=5

If you zoom in and select specific villages, there is even a short description of their specific situation on the left.

Eg: (found at G106 / the southernmost point on the mainland)
"name

Shaoguan, Wengyuan Counties; Xinjiang Township, Shangba village and 5 others

description

Legal Daily: 2001 report

A large amount of mining wastewater flowed into Shangba village. The “village of fish and rice,” saw its arable land take on a brownish-red color. Reports say an increasing number of villagers are contracting skin disease, liver disease and cancer. As for ducks, the fastest death happens within 4 to 5 hours, and the slowest occurs within 3 to 4 days"

This visual had brought something to my attention that may or may not be relevant, that all the listed  villages fall within the Eastern half of China.

Why? To be honest I don't know. Maybe that is the "only" ground Deng Fei could cover. All the same, I'd want to thank him for bringing this to the world's attention because evidently what he did has started steps to clean things up.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23212-china-takes-steps-to-clean-up-cancer-villages/