Thirty-four students and a teacher with a village primary school in North China's Hebei Province have been hospitalized with lead poisoning at a Beijing-based hospital, authorities said.

The group is now at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, a medical organization famous for its treatment of poisoning cases, said Ma Dejun of the government press office in Hebei's Xinglong County.

Dozens of students in Grade Two fell sick and began to throw up after they said they smelled something strange last Monday morning in the Shapoyu Village of Xinglong County in Chengde city, where a lead smeltery is located.

So far, 126 other students and villagers who came to Beijing for medical examinations were released after doctors found the proportion of lead in their blood was normal, Ma told China Daily.

Meanwhile, 99 students who chose to stay at their village after feeling sick had their blood tests done on Friday by experts from the Chaoyang Hospital. "Part of the results that have come out are all normal," Ma said.

But the official said it is still not clear of the figure of the results when complete test results are not available,

Meanwhile, the conditions of 34 students and a teacher in Beijing are stable, no longer showing symptoms of poisoning, sources with the Chaoyang Hospital said.

Gao Xing, director of the Beijing Municipal Preventive Medicine Research Centre that examined the students' blood, pointed out that although the 35 persons were diagnosed with lead content over the normal levels, it may not necessarily mean they were poisoned by lead.

"To decide whether a person suffers from lead poisoning needs three factors: laboratory examination results, clinical symptoms and body conditions," he explained.

Gao said that there is no national standard for a child's blood lead proportion and the current standard used for classifying normal or abnormal is introduced from overseas, that is, 100 ug (microgrammes) per litre of blood.

The State Environmental Protection Administration has designated the Hebei provincial bureau as the agency to conduct an investigation into the Shapoyu Village to find causes for the accident.

The Chengde Municipal Environ-mental Protection Bureau also has sent officials to collect air and water samples.

A villager in Shapoyu, Jiang Zhantong, wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Xinglong County Party Committee, Wu Haihui, asking the government to help close down the iron mines in the village.

"Private bosses of the mines have not adopted any measures to prevent pollution of the air and water," he said.

Wu Haihui has made a public apology to villagers and said the county government is responsible for the accident. He said that if the cause is finally confirmed to be pollution by the lead smeltry, the medical fees of the victims will be covered by the smeltery owner. If not, the government will pay the hospital bills.

(China Daily 03/22/2004 page3)