62 Cancer Cases in Chinese Village of 585 Blamed on Chemical Plant Pollution

In a village with a registered population of only 585 in Xinzhou District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, at least 34 villagers have been diagnosed with cancer or leukemia in the past 10 years, many of them young and middle-aged adults under 50. The incident has triggered strong suspicion among villagers about long-term pollution from a local chemical factory.
According to mainland Chinese media Daxiang News, 34 people in Huangtupo Village, Zhangxin, Lijie Street, Xinzhou District, have been diagnosed with cancer or leukemia since 2015, with 19 of them having passed away. Including earlier cases, the number of patients reaches 62, many of whom are young and middle-aged adults under 50. Villagers suspect all of this is related to the long-term pollution discharge from the "Changsheng Paohuajian Factory" in Xinzhou District.
Villagers reported that the factory was established in 1986. In the past, when it was in production, dust was pervasive, and the wastewater was "soy sauce-colored," flowing through a discharge ditch, across farmland, and into a pond. Crops near the ditch showed obvious abnormal growth, with situations like "sweet potatoes not sprouting and weeds dying off."
Xu Wenjie, a 58-year-old villager, stated that his 43-year-old wife was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012 and died after four years of treatment. In 2017, his 26-year-old daughter-in-law was also diagnosed with leukemia. "It was only after I compiled the statistics that I realized 62 people in the village have had cancer or leukemia in recent years," he said.
The report says that the Changsheng Paohuajian Factory is located on higher ground, and its discharge ditch winds down a slope, passing through the villagers' vegetable plots and into the village pond. A layer of dark brown hard crust is deposited at the bottom of the ditch.
Outside the factory walls are the former vegetable plots of the Huangtupo villagers, where numerous graves are scattered. Xu Wenjie said that many of them belonged to those who died of cancer or leukemia. "There are over a dozen vegetable plots here, and every household has someone with cancer or leukemia, some have more than one."
Li Xiangui, a 60-year-old owner of a vegetable plot just a wall away from the factory, has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Li said, "When the factory was in production, the dust was like smog, so hazy you couldn't see anything clearly. A thick layer fell on the vegetable leaves. Later, I didn't dare to grow vegetables. Sweet potatoes wouldn't sprout. Now I grow corn, and for seeds planted at the same time, the closer they are to the discharge ditch, the shorter they grow, by as much as half the height."
On April 7, 2022, Xu Wenjie called the Wuhan mayor's hotline to report the situation. The next day, villagers reported it again to the local environmental protection department. However, after waiting for many days, no officials came to the site. During this period, the Changsheng Paohuajian Factory, under the guise of "rectification," re-dug the discharge ditch and sealed the original discharge outlet.
Public information shows that the Changsheng Paohuajian Factory mainly produces sodium silicate (water glass) products, primarily used in the building materials industry as adhesives, quick-setting agents, etc. In 2022, an investigation by the Wuhan Ecological Environment Bureau found that the factory had no environmental impact assessment or pollutant discharge permit and was located within an ecological control line. A third-party testing report showed that indicators such as total alkalinity and chromaticity of the factory's wastewater seriously exceeded standards.
Villagers also allege that the environmental protection department "tipped off" the factory during law enforcement. A video filmed by a villager shows the factory manager admitting on camera that an environmental official had notified the factory in advance to block the discharge outlet.
Villagers claim the factory has repeatedly engaged in secret production and pollution discharge. They continue to demand that officials release the complete test data and investigate whether the high incidence of cancer and leukemia is related to the pollution. In response to outside queries, the Xinzhou District Ecological Environment Sub-bureau has refused to disclose some law enforcement records and investigation materials, citing them as "not for public disclosure."
The topic has attracted widespread attention from Chinese netizens, who have criticized the situation as "a flagrant disregard for human life," asked "where can the poor people make their voices heard?" and lamented that "they have ruined more than 60 families."