After reports of possible food contamination caused a scare in Henan province last month, local officials are saying there's nothing to fear. Cui Wenjun, head of a district-level environmental protection bureau in the city of Xinxiang, confirmed that some wheat fields in the city had indeed been tainted with the toxic chemical cadmium. But he told Caixin the local government has collected all contaminated crops, contradicting earlier reports that the tainted wheat had already hit markets.
上个月关于食品可能出现污染的报道在河南省引发了一阵恐慌，当地官方称没有什么需要担心的。新乡市区级环保局局长崔文俊证实该市的某些麦田确实被有毒化学物质镉污染了。但他告诉财新报，当地政府已经把所有受污染的作物收集了起来，此说法与之前有毒小麦已经上市的报道相矛盾。
Xinxiang's cadmium controversy made news last month, when a member of the environmental protection NGO “Airman” reported to the provincial environment department that industrial waste from a battery factory had leached into local farmland. Airman volunteer Tian Jing said she took wheat samples from fields near two battery plants in Xinxiang over a one-year period starting last June. The batteries made at the plants contain the toxic heavy metals nickel and cadmium. Tian said one sample taken directly outside the factory's walls contained 34.1 times the normal level of cadmium. She also claimed that some of the poisoned crops might have already entered markets.
新乡的镉污染事件争议起于上个月的新闻报道，民间环保组织“Airman”的一名成员向省环境局报告称一家电池厂的工业废料被过滤到了当地农田里。Airman组织的志愿者田静说她从去年六月开始了为期一年的跟踪调查，一直从两家电池厂附近的农田里采集小麦样品。电池厂里生产的电池含有有毒重金属镍和镉。田静说从电池厂墙外的地里采集的一个样品中镉含量是正常含量的34.1倍。她还说有些有毒作物可能早就已经进入市场了。
But Cui said he believed the district government had gathered the tainted wheat. He said the contaminated farmland had been under inspection since 2012, and claimed that the government bought up the wheat to prevent it from being sold. He also said the amount of wheat grown in high-risk plots was relatively small. Airman, the NGO that discovered the cadmium contamination, said it is investigating the government's claims.
但是崔文俊说他相信地区政府已经将受污染的小麦收集起来了。他说被污染的农田自2012年以来一直处于监视之下，政府已经把受污染的小麦全部买下，防止其流入市场。他还说生长在高风险区的小麦数量相对较少。发现镉污染的民间组织Airman称其正在调查政府的说法。
The district government is working to safely dispose of tainted crops and reduce cadmium levels in the soil, Cui told Caixin. He said the government is considering turning cadmium-tainted wheat into ethanol and starch for industrial use.
崔文俊告诉财新报，地区政府正在安全处理受污染的作物，并且降低土壤中的镉含量。他说政府正在考虑将镉污染的小麦转换成有工业用途的乙醇和淀粉。
Cadmium, which has been widely confirmed to cause cancer in humans, is one of the 10 chemicals considered a “major public health concern” by the World Health Organization. It's caused major headaches in China in recent years. Farmers in Zhejiang and Guangxi provinces suffer from a weakness of the legs, likely caused by eating cadmium-contaminated rice, a Caixin probe found.
已经明确确定镉对人体有致癌作用，它被世界卫生组织列为“主要公共卫生问题”的十大化学物质之一。它是近几年来让中国很头疼的问题。财新的一项调查发现，浙江和广西的农民有腿部虚弱无力的迹象，原因很有可能是食用了被镉污染的大米。
A 2014 survey by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land Resources showed that over 19 percent of all Chinese farmland had been contaminated by chemicals including cadmium.
2014年环保部和土地资源部的一项调查表明，中国有19%以上的耕地已经被包括镉在内的化学物质污染。
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