Chen Ajiang, Hohai University (Sm,all Grant 2010)

This project sought to understand the phenomenon of “cancer villages” in China. Through a detailed analysis of five sites it explores both the complexity of assessing industrial pollution’s impacts on health, and the economic and social factors influencing villagers’ responses to perceived health risks. The team conducted fieldwork in five villages with different types of pollution and different levels of economic development and patterns of social organization and social capital in Guangdong, Henan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

 

The project collected information on the basic demographic and economic situation of the villages, the major industries, and, as far as possible, the health status of the population. In addition to short surveys to collect general information and semi-structured interviews, the team also reviewed available official documents and media reports, and conducted participant observation living and working with villagers.

 

Although each of the field sites has been identified as a “cancer village” by villagers or in the media, the project demonstrates that in many cases it is not possible to prove or disprove a causal relationship between pollution and cancer. Scientific uncertainty, long latency periods, and the interaction between genetics, lifestyle and other environmental factors mean that there are there are very few cases in which the relationship between pollution and cancer can be decisively established. Most cases fall on a continuum somewhere between these two poles. The project groups cases into four broad categories: 1) cases in which a connection between pollution and cancer has already been clearly established; 2) cases where a relationship can reasonably be inferred on the basis of considerable evidence; 3) cases where there is not much evidence for the claimed connection; and 4) cases where there is no evidence base for the claim. 

 

Despite this uncertainty, cancer villages have nonetheless become a “social fact,” heightening people’s awareness of the relationship between pollution and cancer, and generating responses from government and civil society. In the face of uncertainty, villagers act in an effort to protect themselves from perceived risks by seeking to have factories closed, moving away, and changing their sources of water and food. Both economic and social factors are important in shaping the nature of their responses and the way in which they interact both with factories and local government.