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Article

10 Sep 2018

Author:
Wong Lok-to, Radio Free Asia

China: Thousands of Wuhan residents protest against planned transforming station over health concerns, some reportedly beaten & detained

"Police in China's Wuhan Beat, Detain Protesters Angry Over Power Project", 6 Sep 2018

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei are holding an unknown number of people after thousands of protesters took to the streets in protest at a planned power facility. Several thousand residents of…Wuhan took to the streets on Tuesday and Wednesday over plans to build a transforming station in the city's Gaoxin district, local residents told RFA. 

By Wednesday, several hundred police were drafted in, beating up and detaining protesters, leaving many injured, they said. By Thursday, as heavy rains hit the city, the streets around Gaoxin district's Guangrong Development Area, the proposed site for the power plant, were cleared of protests, an Wuhan resident surnamed Hong said.  

…[A] resident surnamed Li said that while many residents agree on the need for a transforming station, they are highly suspicious of a lack of official transparency around the project…[A]n official who answered the phone at the Gaoxin district government offices declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Thursday…

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), electrical substations are sources of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields. Short-term exposure to very high levels of electromagnetic fields can be harmful to health, WHO said, adding that current public concern focuses on possible long-term health effects caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields at levels below those required to trigger acute biological responses… "Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health," it said....