About 300 villagers remained in hospital after a massive discharge of sulfur dioxide gas at a chemical plant in southwest China, state media reported Thursday. Fourteen were seriously ill after the leak Monday at a fertilizer plant in Guizhou province's Xifeng county, The Associated Press quoted the official Xinhua News Agency as saying. An equipment malfunction caused the discharge, the report said. Sulfur dioxide, a colorless gas, can cause breathing difficulties and is often blamed for acid rain. About 450 villagers had been hospitalized after reporting respiratory problems, but some have since been discharged and about 300 remained, Xinhua said, without saying how it had obtained the information. Other state media had reported the figure at about 140. The county government was investigating the possible contamination of crops and farmland by the discharge, and planned to offer area farmers compensation, Xinhua said. It said air quality in the affected area had returned to normal by Wednesday.
