Forty-seven children in a primary school have been confirmed as having excessive lead in blood in east China's Fujian Province, local sources said on Saturday.

All the children were diagnosed as having over 100 gammas of lead per liter of blood after undergoing tests twice by local authoritative medical institutions, said a spokesman for the information department of the Youxi County.

A seven-year-old boy surnamed Luo has been hospitalized for moderate lead poisoning, according to the spokesman. The boy was diagnosed as having 261 gammas lead per liter of blood.

All the children were from the Qili Primary School, in the Qili Village. Two tests by the Disease Prevention and Control Center of Sanming City showed that they had excessive lead in blood.

The center conducted the first blood test for 139 students from the school on Oct. 17. Eighty-two were found with excessive lead in blood. A second test by the center on Oct. 24 confirmed 47 children had excessive lead in blood.

According to the national diagnosis standard, a child whose blood lead is 100 to 199 gammas per liter in two consecutive vein blood tests should be confirmed as having high blood lead.

Blood lead level between 250 and 449 gammas per liter is moderate lead poisoning.

The Meiheng Smelting Co. Ltd in the village was suspected to be the source of the children's excessive lead in blood, according to local environmental authorities.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2006)