The spreading of red dust by a Chinese mill has cancer rates quadrupled in the Serbian town of Radinac.
Residents have to forcefully dry their laundry indoors and clean their automobiles with vinegar since the situation is awful.
The Serbian government purchased the Smedrevo steel factory five years ago for 46 million euros ($53 million).
According to proprietors, 300 million euros have been invested in technology and emission reduction. Hesteel, China’s largest steelmaker, originally purchased it.
The village likewise has a population of roughly 100,000 people and is located in central Serbia. In 2019, there were 6,866 cancer cases reportedly.
According to data from the Smederevo public health body, which a watchdog called Tvrdjava, this was a very huge increase from the 1,738 instances in 2011. Now the Cancer rates quadrupled in this Serbian town due to the spread of red dust by the Chinese mill.
”The air in the town is far below European standards for 120 days per year. Red dust is greasy, it sticks to lungs, makes breathing difficult,” said Nikola Krstic, the head of Tvrdjava.
Ljubica Drake, the plant’s manager for environmental protection said, ”We are all citizens of Smederevo… Would we be working despite pollution, against ourselves and our children?”
She believes the sickness links to the NATO bombardment of Serbia in 1999 during the Kosovo war.
After their completion in 2022, three new production facilities, according to Ljubica, will drastically cut pollution.
China has spent billions of euros in Serbia, which is a contender for EU membership but has had a tense relationship with the West for more than two decades following the wars that followed Yugoslavia’s disintegration, and has maintained close connections with Beijing.
The officials of Belgrade have also stated that they are ready to take on Chinese-owned businesses over pollution.