China mayor sorry after mass poisoning of kids. Parents clashed with cops when tests exposed high lead levels near smelter.msnbc.msn.com. August 18, 2009. A mayor apologized to residents of two villages — where nearly all the children were sickened by lead poisoning apparently from a nearby smelter — after recent clashes between angry parents and police, state media said Tuesday.The mayor of Baoji city in Shaanxi province, Dai Zhengshe, arrived at the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. plant on Monday when hundreds of villagers were protesting, tearing down fences and blocking traffic outside the factory, the official Xinhua News Agency said. [ See ]

See also in telegraph.co.uk: More than 1,300 children fall ill near Chinese smelting plants