At least 26 villagers have died from cadmium poisoning and hundreds more fallen ill since 2009 near a disused factory in central China...Soil samples from Shuangqiao in Hunan province contained 300 times authorised cadmium levels and excess amounts were found in 500 of 3,000 villagers tested by health authorities, the China Youth Daily said. It said 26 people had died as a result of cadmium…20 of them from cancer, while children in the village were born with deformities. A major chemical plant operated in the village until 2009, and a "huge" industrial waste pile remains in the factory grounds… "an odour that will not go away", the paper said.…"one of the country's 10 biggest pollution incidents". Cadmium is highly toxic and exposure to the metal "is known to cause cancer", according to the US Department of Labor…The environment ministry this year acknowledged for the first time the existence of "cancer villages", years after domestic media reported on more than 100 polluted rural areas with higher incidences of the disease.