"Five others were also jailed after more than 200 children in Gansu were poisoned by paint used to improve the appearance of canteen food.
Laboratory tests confirmed that the paint – which had been clearly marked as not safe for consumption – contained lead.
Of the 251 children at Peixin Kindergarten, 233 were found to have abnormal blood lead levels while 18 returned tests within the normal range.
Food samples from the kindergarten were found to contain more than 2,000 times the national safe limit for contaminants.
The case, one of the worst food safety scandals involving children for several years, sparked nationwide fury."
Edit - some additional coverage from ABC, illustrating that it was added to “make the food brighter and more appealing to students”. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-17/kindergarten-staff-jailed-over-lead-poisoning-in-china/107278660
Feels like this would be a good time for China’s leadership to catch up to the developed world and ban making lead paint. It’s unneccessary and leaves environmental contamination anywhere it’s used: a legacy of shit for future generations to clean up (and pay for). And of course - the human lives that are given lasting damage when exposed. All to save a bit of money because lead white paint lasts longer? Shameful.
Why is there still lead in the paint?
I safely add paint to my food all the time now because we don’t use lead here anymore. It wasn’t always this way though, as a child, I had plenty of lead in my painted food. I turned out just fine
Because they don’t have things like the secHealth, the FDA and the CDC protecting their public in backwards nations.
Wait…
Chinese authorities are pretty strict with health and safety. It’s the businesses and establishments who don’t care. I’m Asian and a lot of establishments still have that old school mindset to do the bare minimum allowance of resource allocation, but maximising the extraction of profit. It’s not just old school thinking, but very short term minded because the consequences will always catch up.
Pretty sure @jeebaichow is taking a swing at America and the American public’s generally ignorance about how other countries function.