Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Since she had brought up the environment, though, I felt comfortable asking her about
emissions and workshop conditions. She said emissions from burning circuit boards were
the main environmental problem.
I doubted it. The Hans' workshop, for instance, although host to a warm and supportive
family atmosphere, was almost certainly powdered with lead, tin, and antimony dust, not to
mention other toxins from all the sawing and board frying. So when little Lang and his sis-
ter came home from school to help out in the workshop, they were not just taking part in the
family business. They were most likely being poisoned. In this, they were representative
of both Guiyu and a wider phenomenon. In its pursuit of unfettered economic results, Ch-
ina has allowed widespread lead poisoning. This is especially dangerous to children, whose
nervous system and mental health can be permanently damaged. “In more developed na-
tions,” the
New York Times
said in June 2011, “a pattern of lead poisoning like China's
would most likely be deemed a public-health emergency.”
The secretary told us that the government had recently started taking the environmental
problem seriously. And the business association was trying to attract investors and start
partnerships to develop new technology to do the work more cleanly. Again, I doubted it.
The problem wasn't technology. It was that to be economically viable, the e-waste industry
operated unsafely, and was allowed to.
The secretary asked me a question. Did I have ideas for new technology?
Me? I may have misunderstood Cecily's translation. The secretary was asking
me
for
ideas of how Guiyu could do its business more cleanly? Or for institutional contacts? What
should I say?
I smiled blandly and nodded, in a way that conveyed neither comprehension nor intelli-
gence.
“Not off the top of my head,” I said.
It's okay that journalists have come to expose the problems, the secretary said, pouring
some more fruit tea. But it's more important to find solutions than to criticize.
We made another visit to the Han family the next day. We wanted to thank them and to say
goodbye. Also, when you're in a strange town where you don't know anybody, it's nice to
go someplace where people will smile and offer you tea and cookies.
You're sure he's not a journalist, Mr. Han asked Cecily.
No, no, she said.
