141 polluters

    A total of 141 listed companies and their affiliates* discharged pollutants in excess of China’s national standards last year, the Beijing News reported, citing a pollution report by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), a nonprofit organization based in Beijing.

    The annual report, released in February, was based on official data from China’s local environmental authorities and covered 1,365 enterprises, including 519 companies listed on the A-share market. Of the companies, 25 were chemical companies, 20 public utilities and 11 were from the building materials industry.

    Firefighter killed

    A firefighter was killed in the chemical warehouse fire that raged from Friday morning until the early hours of Saturday in Jiangsu Province, the provincial fire department confirmed on Saturday.

    Zhu Junjun, 26, from the fire detachment* of Jingjiang City, was caught in the flames after delaying evacuation to continue spraying water on the blaze and to cover other firefighters, according to the department.

    Self-defense gadgets

    There has been an “enormous rise” in the demand for self-defense products including personal safety alarms, tactical* pens and key chains in China following a hotel assault in early April.

    Major online shopping malls said that the sales of self-defense items increased markedly over the past weeks, in particular a sharp rise in purchases from females, after a video emerged on April 5 apparently showing a woman being throttled* and pulled away in the hallway of a Beijing hotel.

    Chemical plants to close

    Twenty-eight chemical factories at an industrial park in Haian County, East China’s Jiangsu Province, have been ordered to close following claims that students at a nearby primary school fell sick after breathing in noxious* fumes.

    According to a report on April 20 by thepaper.cn, the parents of more than 20 students from a single second-grade class claimed their children suffered nose bleeds and skin irritation* as a result of a foul smell coming from the Haian Chemical Industrial Park, which is located about 3 kilometers to the south.(SD-Agencies)