A tanker truck carrying 30 tons of sulfuric acid overturned on a highway in southwestern China, spilling the corrosive chemical into a drainage ditch that feeds into a river, ap quoted state media and a traffic officer as saying Wednesday. The long-term environmental impact of the accident Tuesday in Yunnan province was unclear and it was not known if water supplies were threatened. The government's Xinhua News Agency said the spill resulted in «serious pollution» and killed large numbers of fish. The ditch empties into the Xinsi River but environmental experts were on hand to deal with the pollution, said an officer at the Traffic Administration Bureau in the city of Chuxiong who gave only his surname, Li. He said he was not clear about the details of the response. No one was injured in the accident, which occurred when the tanker truck hit a guardrail, Xinhua said. Authorities dispatched another truck to haul away the remaining acid, the agency reported. Sulfuric acid can severely burn the skin and eyes and can also be deadly to aquatic life. Also known as battery acid, it is used in production of metals, fertilizer and electronics.
