Student poisoning, explosions prompt new safety rules

A high-profile case of student poisoning in Shanghai and an explosion in a laboratory at a university in Nanjing in recent weeks have led to concerns about the safety of students on campuses and a tightening of rules on the use of hazardous chemicals and other poisons in laboratories.

After a public outcry on microblogging sites over the two incidents, China’s Ministry of Education posted a circular on its website requiring universities to improve the storage, use and disposal of chemicals used for scientific experiments, and for local governments and other authorities to ensure that the regulations are adhered to.

“The entire process regarding chemicals should be put under control, and all areas, including purchasing, obtaining, use, returning and disposal, should be properly recorded,” the circular said.

Institutions must make sure that use of chemicals is properly registered and inventories are properly recorded, and the two must tally with each other. At least two people must be involved in overseeing the storage and use of toxic chemicals, according to the circular.

Roommate rage

On 16 April Huang Yang (28), a medical science graduate student at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University, was poisoned. He died in hospital two weeks later.

The tragedy sparked an outpouring of sympathy for Huang’s family on Sina Weibo and other microblogging sites. Huang was from a poor family and was the first in his family to go to university.

Zhongshan Hospital confirmed in official media that Huang had been poisoned, with other local media outlets reporting that according to leaked information, his death was caused by the toxic compound N-Nitrosodimethylamine, which can cause liver damage.

According to Shanghai Daily, the city’s police detained Huang’s roommate Lin Senhao after water from the room’s drinking water dispenser was found to be poisoned.

Also in April, an undergraduate at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was killed by his roommate for seemingly trivial reasons. The victim was stabbed to death after an argument, allegedly because the victim was busy playing computer games and answered the door late.

More violence on campuses

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, was quoted in official media as saying that more violent crimes had been taking place on Chinese campuses.

"The lack of awareness of the law and a sense of teamwork, as well as various kinds of psychological problems, have all contributed to the current situation," Xiong said.

Other sociologists have for some time criticised China’s competitive education system, which pitches students against one another, and have argued that China’s one-child policy has created a generation of spoilt ‘little emperors’ who have failed to learn empathy for others.

A furious online debate unleashed on microblogging sites blamed China’s high-pressure higher education system, although this has been played down by the authorities and some others.

Xiong, told Global Times newspaper that the education system was not completely to blame for the poisonings but there needed to be more concentration on ‘moral education’.

Huang’s parents and the university have had to come out in public to deny online rumours that the victim and his roommate had been competing for the same doctoral opportunity.

Fang Ming, a spokesperson for Fudan University, was quoted in official media as saying that the two students were not specialising in the same field and worked as interns at different hospitals.

Old wounds reopened

The Huang incident also reopened old wounds relating to the unresolved case in 1994 of the Thallium poisoning of Tsinghua University student Zhu Ling, allegedly by her roommate. Zhu was left paralysed, mentally disabled and dependent on her parents for basic care. Her roommate Sun Wei was never charged.

Many students believed, rightly or wrongly, that Sun Wei got off scot free because she was well connected. They said she was one of only a few undergraduates at the time with access to Thallium in a university laboratory.

Two other Thallium poisoning cases, in 1997 at Peking University and in 2007 at China University of Mining Technology, in Xuzhou in Jiangsu province, were also reported in official media. In all the cases, the alleged perpetrators were the victim’s roommates.

The 19-year old case of Zhu Ling resurfaced on microblogging sites, but search terms like Zhu Ling and Thallium were quickly censored.

Tens of thousands of Chinese also signed a petition on the US government's public website, starting off with ‘We the People’ and calling on the Barack Obama administration to intervene in the case and help bring the suspect Sun Wei to justice.

She is believed to be living in America. This drew attention to the case in US media.

China’s official media has said that the Ministry of Education circular relating to toxic safety was issued after the Huang case. But the reissued regulations also included keeping hazardous materials separately and properly handling inflammable and explosive materials in labs – including in labs that are not in use – the circular said.

An explosion in late April in an abandoned laboratory at Nanjing University of Science and Technology in Jiangsu province, killed one person and injured three others. According to the university, the explosion occurred while construction workers were demolishing the lab.

“The [lab] building is very close to the student hostel and the number of casualties would be unimaginable if the explosion had been more powerful,” according to one student blogger.

But a university spokesman was quoted as saying explosives were not stored on campus, and blamed the blast on construction workers.