Central China corruption investigators have named the children's hospital official who allegedly purchased industrial oxygen for medical procedures, and said the hospital made no profit from the illegal purchases.

Jiang Zhi, director of integrated office of the Chenzhou Children's Hospital, in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, who was in charge of purchasing the oxygen, had been suspended, said an official with the municipal commission for discipline inspection.

All the industrial oxygen at the hospital, affiliated to Chenzhou First People's Hospital, was sealed and replaced with medical oxygen after it was first reported in January, said the official.

No children had been reported to have suffered any ill effects from the industrial oxygen, according to the municipal government.

The prices of industrial oxygen and medical oxygen varied widely, the official said.

Industrial oxygen, which costs 6 to 7 yuan a bottle, is 99 percent pure, while medical oxygen, which costs 30 yuan a bottle, is 99.5 percent pure, the official said.

The hospital had purchased more than 10,000 bottles of industrial oxygen and the illegal earnings were estimated at 300,000 yuan (US$44,000), but the hospital had not benefited, the official said.

The municipal Food and Drug Administration announced in March that the hospital would be fined 920,000 yuan, but the fine has yet to be levied.

(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2010)