Chinese school shut after students fall sick due to pollution

A school in eastern China has been shut down after a number of students started bleeding from nose due to harmful emissions from adjacent factories.
About 20 students of the No.9 Primary School in Beibaixiang township in Leqing City of Zhejiang Province started bleeding from nose, while others were vomiting and complained of severe headache and stomachache.
An investigation by the environmental protection authorities in Leqing on Thursday showed that more than 30 factories or workshops are within 1 km of the school, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Twenty-eight of the factories' exhaust gas emission have not been approved. Emissions of the two that have obtained approvals are not up to the standard, investigation revealed.

The investigators also found that the school building was newly put into use, with the desks, chairs and some walls inside the classrooms recently painted.
Meanwhile, the government is set to order a suspension of production at the surrounding enterprises for a thorough overhaul.
The school has about 1,200 students and more than 60 teachers and staff workers. Educational authorities in Leqing has decided to shift the school to an old building to resume classes from tomorrow.