Shandong Dongming denies rumors that tens of thousands of people suffer from thyroid tumors.

Panorama of Dongming County Sewage Treatment Plant

　　Recently, some websites and forums have surprised many people with thyroid diseases because of the serious environmental pollution in Dongming County, which has attracted the attention of netizens. On the 23rd, relevant departments and personnel of Dongming County and Heze City responded through this newspaper.

　　Is the environmental pollution in Dongming County so "serious"?

　　"A large amount of wastewater has seriously polluted the groundwater in the urban area of Dongming County (Fangming Chemical Factory is in the county, Hongye Chemical is in the countryside), making the groundwater around it undrinkable, and a large amount of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide have seriously polluted the atmosphere, which has brought great hidden dangers to the water safety and health of the entire urban residents." This is the content of a post on a website forum.

　　On June 23, the person in charge of the relevant departments of Dongming County issued a report on groundwater inspection in Dongming County issued by Heze Water Quality Testing Center on June 19. The inspection conclusion was that except fluoride and turbidity, all the others met GB5749-2006 "National Hygienic Standard for Drinking Water".

　　Yin Wenqing, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Dongming County, told the reporter that in the first half of this year, they sampled and analyzed the drinking water of Dongming Credit Cooperative, West Hospital of Water Affairs Bureau and Highway Bureau, and tested 11 indicators according to GB5749—2006 sanitary standard for drinking water, except for fluoride exceeding the standard, the other 10 indicators were all qualified. In order to verify whether environmental pollution can induce the cause of thyroid tumor, the county conducted a door-to-door survey in Vu Thang Bridge and Jiaoyuan townships. In 2008, no case of thyroid cancer was found in Qiaoxiang, Vu Thang, where chemical enterprises were concentrated (one case was found in 2009), while Jiaoyuan Township, which is located in the Yellow River beach area without chemical enterprises, found three cases of thyroid cancer in 2008.

　　On June 23rd, a monitoring report issued by Heze Environmental Monitoring Center Station pointed out that in June 2009, their wastewater around key enterprises and their subordinate wastewater was discharged into 10 villages in the lower reaches of the river. According to GB5749—2006 sanitary standard for drinking water, 20 indicators were rationally distributed, sampled and tested, and all the other 19 indicators were qualified except fluoride. These 10 villages are Gangzhuang and Liufen villages around dongming petrochemical Group, Zhangzhan village around Yuhuang Chemical Industry, Wulibao, Haozhai and Beiguan villages around Hongye Chemical Industry, Dongguan and Dongsanli villages around Fangming Chemical Industry, and Wang Guan Tun and Wuzhuang villages are also selected on both sides of the north branch of Dongyu River. At the same time, Heze Environmental Monitoring Center added six indicators such as benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene to the water samples of the above 10 villages, but none of them were detected. The county is located in a high fluoride area, and geological conditions are the main reasons for fluoride exceeding the standard.

　　According to reports, in view of the water quality around chemical enterprises, Heze Environmental Monitoring Center Station sampled and tested the drainage water quality of Petrochemical Group, Yongyue Paper (which entered the county sewage treatment plant for reprocessing after sewage treatment), Yuhuang Chemical, Hongye Chemical and sewage treatment plants in June 2009, and the chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen all reached the standard of general protected areas in the Discharge Standard of Water Pollution Substances for South-to-North Water Diversion Project in Shandong Province.

　　The number of thyroid tumors is as high as 60% or more?

　　"According to the chief physician, the number of people suffering from thyroid tumors has exceeded 60%. According to this calculation, there are 50,000 to 60,000 people in urban areas who are sick, and the development is particularly fast. Many patients have deteriorated." This is what netizens posted.

　　On June 23rd, Quan Hong Tao, the deputy magistrate in charge of health work in Dongming County, told reporters that in 2007, when the People’s Hospital of Dongming County conducted a physical examination for 670 employees in our hospital, the thyroid gland was included in the examination for the first time. A total of 60 people were found to have thyroid diseases, with a prevalence rate of 8.95%, and the last four people were diagnosed as thyroid cancer (thyroid diseases were not listed as physical examination items in other counties and districts of the city). They also investigated the incidence of thyroid disease in the county. In 2008, 401 people were hospitalized with thyroid disease in the county, including 41 people with thyroid cancer.

　　Quan Hong Tao said that the Dongming County Party Committee and the county government attached great importance to it and took the following measures in time: First, the thyroid examination was listed as a routine examination item for the health examination of cadres and workers; Second, in 2008, the county CDC conducted a special survey of thyroid diseases, and checked 3680 people in more than 20 units in the county, and found 522 cases, with an average prevalence rate of 14.2%, far lower than some high-incidence areas in China.

　　According to Wang Naishuo, chief physician of Heze City Center for Disease Control, thyroid disease is a common and frequently-occurring disease, which is on the rise in many parts of the country. There are many reasons to induce thyroid diseases, such as high iodine and iodine deficiency, especially high iodine is the main reason to induce thyroid diseases.

　　According to Quan Hong Tao, Dongming County is a high iodine area, and Dongming County has been taking iodized salt from 1996 to 2005.

　　Point to point verification

　　Rumor: The post said, "There are 12 adults in Wang Junping’s family, the first junior high school teacher in the county. Last year, six people suffered from thyroid tumors. This year, nine people have suffered from this disease."

　　Response: On June 23rd, a certificate signed by Mr. Wang Junping, which was investigated by the floating staff in Dongming, showed that there were 21 members in Mr. Wang’s extended family, 8 of whom suffered from nodular lesions of thyroid disease, but there were three diagnosis reports, no one suffered from thyroid cancer, and no one underwent surgery or medication.

　　Rumor: The post also said that "ten teachers in Muzhuang Primary School in Chengguan Town found that six of them had thyroid tumors, and one of them had undergone resection because of the large tumor".

　　Response: According to Yao Cunshan, the principal of Muzhuang Primary School, there were 12 teachers who had physical examination in 2008. After examination by the County Maternal and Child Health Hospital, two of them suffered from thyroid disease, all of which were benign.

　　Rumor: The post also said, "In the last three years, a strange disease began to appear in our county, that is, most people suffered from thyroid tumors. The number of patients has developed very rapidly since 2008. In 2009, when the retired cadres were examined, the project of adding thyroid tumors was added. According to the chief physician, the number of people suffering from thyroid tumors has exceeded 60%. According to this calculation, there are 50,000 to 60,000 urban residents who are sick, and the development is particularly fast, and many patients have deteriorated. "

　　Response: According to Lu Mingqi, vice president of Dongming County People’s Hospital, the number of people who claimed to have thyroid tumors was over 60%. According to Quan Hong Tao, deputy magistrate of Dongming County, in 2008, the county hospitals conducted health check-ups for 5,099 people from 19 units in the county, and 734 people were found to have thyroid diseases, with a prevalence rate of 14.39%.

　　"Solemn statement" popped up on the Internet.

　　At about 19 o’clock on June 23rd, Baidu Heze Post Bar appeared a statement about the post "Tens of thousands of people suddenly suffer from thyroid tumor in Dongming County".

　　The statement said: Dear netizens, at about 9: 30 pm on June 17, 2009, I published the post "Tens of thousands of people suddenly suffer from thyroid tumors in Dongming County" under the registered name "Chunmiao" in the cat’s eye section of Kaidi Community. The text of this post was written by some retired teachers and cadres in our county according to their own understanding, and I was entrusted to publish it online. The only purpose of publishing this post is to attract the attention of superior leaders, send someone to thoroughly investigate the causes of thyroid tumor in Dongming County and order relevant chemical enterprises to immediately stop discharging sewage into urban sewers.

　　Shortly after I published this post, many websites reprinted this article. But what makes people angry is that, without my knowledge, some individuals and groups actually modified the title of the article when reposting it, and even added illegal terrorist remarks that were inconsistent with the facts in the text! These despicable acts of tampering with the title and text of my post and seriously distorting the original intention of my post have affected my life and the reputation of my hometown.

　　In view of this, I hereby solemnly declare that all my posts about the thyroid condition and signed pictures in Dongming County are only published in the cat’s eye section of Kaidi Community, and any related posts on any other websites are not published by me! At present, the social and political stability and rapid economic development in Dongming County have not proved that there are tens of thousands of people suffering from thyroid diseases caused by pollution problems, let alone the so-called "riots" mentioned on some websites!

　　Finally, I regret the negative reports brought to my hometown because my posts have been maliciously tampered with by some people, and I sincerely hope that all netizens will act together to find clues about these posts with bad purposes and report these dangerous elements that harm national interests and social stability!