BEIJING （Reuters） – More than 200 children living beside an industrial park in southwest China have been found to have excessive lead in their blood, state media said on Monday, in the third such case reported in the last month.

    Health authorities tested around 1,000 children in a neighborhood of the city of Kunming, the official China Daily said.

    "Their levels are all higher than 100 micrograms of lead in each liter of blood but lower than 200 micrograms per liter," the newspaper quoted a medical doctor, Wu Ling, as saying.

    Lead poisoning can build up slowly and occurs from repeated exposure to small amounts of lead which can harm a child's mental development. Health problems get more severe as the level of lead in the blood gets higher.

    Parents are blaming the poisoning on a nearby industrial park, the report added, though the local environmental protection bureau denies there is a direct link with industrial pollutants.

    The environmental bureau said the case has been caused by factors such as exhaust emissions.

    "There are thousands of children in Dongchuan district and other areas, so I wonder why only the kids around the industrial park have been found to have excessive lead in their blood," a local mother was cited as saying.

    Earlier this month, more than 800 children living near a metal smelter in northwest Shaanxi province were found to have dangerous amounts of lead in their blood, and more than 150 were sent to hospital.

    The same problem also dogs heavy metals bases in Hunan, Henan, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces.

    At least three lead smelters in Henan province and two in Shaanxi province were ordered to temporarily halt production after protests against pollution at a lead and zinc smelter in Shaanxi.

    北京（路透社）--中國國家媒體星期一稱，上月第三次鉛中毒報告中說，生活在中國西南部一個工業園旁邊的200多名兒童，被發現血液中鉛含量過高。

    中國官方報紙《人民日報》說，衛生機構對昆明市一個社區大約1000名兒童進行了檢測。

    報紙引用吳玲醫師的話說："孩子們血鉛水平都高于每升100毫克，但低于每升200毫克。"

    鉛傷害兒童的智力發育，鉛中毒可逐漸形成，是長期接觸少量的鉛造成的。隨著血鉛水平進一步升高，健康問題變得日趨嚴重。

    報告補充說，父母們將鉛中毒歸咎于附近一座工業園，但當地環保局否認與工業污染物有直接的聯系。

    環保局說，這起事件是由廢氣排放這樣的因素造成的。

    引用當地一名孩子母親的話："東川區及其它地區有幾千名兒童，但我不明白為什么唯獨工業園周圍的孩子被發現血鉛過高。"

    本月初，位于西北部的陜西省一家冶金廠附近的800多名兒童，被發現血液中鉛含量達到危險水平。

    同樣的問題也出現在湖南、河南、云南和廣東省的重金屬基地。

    在陜西一家鉛鋅冶煉廠遭到污染抗議之后，至少有三家 河南熔鉛廠，兩家陜西熔鉛廠被責令暫停生產。