More than 600 children living adjacent to a smelting company in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have shown abnormal blood lead levels, a local official said on Thursday.

At least 615 children, out of the total 731 under the age of 14 living in two villages near a smelting company at Changqing Township of Fengxiang County, have shown excessive amounts of blood lead after medical tests, He Hongnian, executive deputy head of Fengxiang County, told a press conference.

"Of them, 166 children were diagnosed as lead poisoning patients and need to be hospitalized. The lead content in their blood has exceeded 250 milligram per liter," He said.

"Their medical expenses will be covered by the county government," he said.

"The rest should be able to expel the excessive lead from their bodies through nonmedical treatments at home. The government will send milk, dried vegetables and dried fruits to them," he said.

Health authorities have also expanded the test scope to more areas near the smelting company and 300 other children are receiving blood tests, he added.

The press conference was attended by 10 representatives of the residents from the Madaokou and Sunjianantou villages that are located next to the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co., who believed that children's sicknesses were linked to environmental pollution caused by the smelting company. But local environmental authorities have yet to publicize their results.

The smelting plant belongs to Dongling Group, one of the biggest private companies in Shaanxi Province. The plant in Changqing town began operating in 2006, producing 100,000 tonnes of lead and zinc and 700,000 tonnes of coke annually. It directly accounted for 17 percent of the county's GDP last year.

Its general manager Sun Hong said the county government had pledged, in a deal reached before the plant was opened, to relocate all residents living within a radius of 500 meters in three years.

"But the relocation is way behind schedule," said Pu Yiming, chief of Changqing Township. "Of all the 581 families that should have been relocated by now, only 156 have moved to new homes."

At Thursday's press conference, the county government promised intervention to speed up relocation.

"We will ensure that all the remaining 425 families are relocated within two years," said He Hongnian.

Local authorities ordered the closure of the smelting plant on August 6, about two weeks after the first lead poisoning case was reported in 6-year-old Miao Fan.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2009)