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雷达卡
By JAMES T. AREDDY
SHANGHAI—Authorities heredirectly linked lead pollution that they said had sickened local children to emissions from a Johnson Controls Inc. battery plant and indicated the facility would not be permitted to process lead in the future.
The move comes amid rising worries in China over pollution. Last September, townspeople in the eastern city of Haining demonstrated, sometimes violently, over pollution they blamed on a solar panel factory. In January, Beijing began offering additional data on air quality amid a public outcry over the city's air pollution.
It also raises issues of land use—a persistent problem in the fast-growing country. Zoning in China's urban areas was traditionally weak and even today housing blocks stand next to factories. China's richer cities like Shanghai are increasingly eager to push polluting industries elsewhere, sentiment Johnson Controls said it detected in its negotiations with local authorities.
At the same time, some business groups complain that foreign companies can get unfairly caught up in public campaigns. Observers worried last year when the southwestern city of Chongqing took action over a price-labeling issue at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlets that led to the temporary closure of 13 stores and the detentions of dozens of employees.
On Sunday, the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said the Johnson Controls plant in an area of the city called Kangqiao had a role in lead pollution that sickened 49 children. "There is an obvious link between the excessive lead in those children's blood in the Kangqiao area and the lead emission by Johnson Controls," according to a summary of its findings published on an official government website.
Milwaukee, Wis.-based Johnson Controls rejected claims its plant can be tied to illness in local children. "Based on all available facts, Johnson Controls disagrees with any interpretation linking our plant's operation to elevated lead exposure," the firm said in a statement.
The Shanghai bureau declined to make its full findings available or to answer questions about it.
The government said it discovered excessive lead-exposure in the 49 children—a higher number than previously reported—during routine back-to-school testing in September. It said three children remain hospitalized. The metal is widely known to cause developmental problems in children, and its use is regulated in China.
The bureau's summary reiterates a local government assertion last year that Johnson Controls had used more lead in its manufacturing than was allowed by a local quota. Johnson Controls executives agreed but said emissions levels from the plant have been below local and national limits, and that in past years local officials focused on emissions levels, not the quota.
On Monday, a Johnson Controls executive said the plant, whichthe company has owned since 2005 andhas been closed since September over the lead concerns, likely won't reopen as a manufacturing facility.
Alex Molinaroli, president of Johnson Controls's battery division, said Shanghai authorities have indicated they won't permit processing lead there but may allow the company to perform late stage activity, such as charging batteries for the first time. "It is clear they don't want us there," he said. As recently as November, Mr. Molinaroli described closure of the plant as "voluntary" and temporary through the end of last year. At the time, he cited findings from a Shanghai testing firm that determined that Johnson Controls had abided by local laws and wasn't the source of the local lead pollution.
But in late December, he said, local authorities indicated new production quotas might not be granted. And in January, the company trimmed its global 2012 earnings forecasts in part to reflect the chance the plant wouldn't reopen in 2012.
The company is importing batteries from its plants elsewhere to satisfy its customers in China, a strategy that executives said is break-even at best. The Shanghai plant's annual capacity is 2.6 million batteries, less than a Jiangsu Province plant that can produce 8 million units and a plant being built in Chongqing with a capacity for 6 million batteries annually.
Mr. Molinaroli said Johnson Controls can find no scientific basis for the decisions in Shanghai. But, citing the company's large business in China, he added, "we're trying to not be emotional about this."
The Johnson Controls Shanghai plant was the only prominent one among a number of factories closed after authorities revealed the lead poisoning. In its report, the bureau also cited lead pollution in the Kangqiao area from two other small companies that it said share the blame and have been closed.
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