In Xiamen, on the southeastern coast of China, a petrochemical corporation has been constructing a $1.4 million factory to produce p-Xylene, a highly toxic petrochemical used to make polyester for fiber and plastic packaging. Public concern in the city over the health risks posed by the factory’s presence has been stirring dissent for some time, but opponents face the powerful joint force of a corporation and the government. Then several weeks ago, someone sent a text message. It said: Once this extremely poisonous chemical is produced, it means an atomic bomb will have been placed in Xiamen. The people of Xiamen will have to live with leukemia and deformed babies. We want our lives and health! As the LA Times affirms, “cellphones present a new challenge to the [Chinese] government, because all but the poorest people in China own one and text messaging is ubiquitous — used far more often, and by a wider span of ages, than in the U.S., where it tends to be a tool of the young.” Spreading like a virus, the message was repeated more than 1 million times, environmentalists said, until it had reached practically everyone in Xiamen, a city of 1.5 million people…known… (more)
(Posted by Sarah Rich in Communications and Networking at 11:48 AM)