It is not known how long the paint has been used in the food, but several parents told Chinese state media that their children have been complaining of stomach and leg pain and a lack of appetite since March.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
235 points (98.0% liked)
World News
48383 readers
1936 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
China loves lead, gotta watch for it in Chinese toys too. I'm not anti-China but I am anti-harming people.
Chef obviously never watched Chopped! If you put a non-edible element on your plate you are just asking to get sent home.
PRESCHOOL? PRESCHOOL? I'M NOT A FAN OF NON-EDIBLE ORNAMENTS ON MY MEALS AND I'M ALMOST 30.
It actually sounds like they were straight up using normal paint as food colouring.
Lead paint.
Slightly less related, but what modern day paint has lead in it?
You'd be surpised by how many countries do not have a lead paint ban. Though China is one of them that does.
It's also a country where manufacturers do whatever the fuck they want until they get caught. Then they bribe the local officials.
Like the US you mean?
Sometimes I feel like you guys think there's two countries on earth and they have to be compared at every single turn
If we're going to ignore the degree of the issue, then I guess the PRC is just like every other country in the world.
Road signs, like Stop signs, Yield signs. They all use lead as a primary ingredient, I think Chromium is the other metal they use. It's durable and the Matte-Metallic finish makes the sign easy to read in all lightings. You can still get lead as an additive to oil-based paints, but it's heavily restricted. You'd have to have a specific use case to import it, it's called flake white. Metal additives change the texture and reflective properties of the paint, lead is mostly swapped out for zinc and titanium now though.
My first thought: wow, the PPE for the people making road signs must be so involved!
My second thought: unfortunately, probably not at all.
One that costs 5 cents less than the others
White house paint still had lead in it in Australia, just at much lower levels than before the ban
Yeah, if you're looking at food in China, there's a real argument to avoid anything artificial-seeming because of incidents like this. I'm told it's part of the reason why wet markets are so popular - there's no doubt if your meat is real and unadulterated when you just saw it running around.
Sugar of Lead, chef's kiss and sorry children
The school principal asked the kitchen staff to buy the paint online
officers had to search for the supplies which had been hidden.
The paint was clearly marked as inedible
I'm amazed if a single person employed at this school is not going to prison.
Sometimes China executes people for stuff like this.
If there were a crime which deserved the death penalty (there isn’t), intentionally poisoning more than 200 children would be it. It’s technically possible that they’re really negligent and stupid, but hiding the paint was definitely intentional and probably caused additional harm by delaying treatment.
good.
it's rare I give praise to China, this is probably the first and only time.
you would think if people were afraid of losing their own lives, shit like this would stop. unfortunately China (and all of Asia really) has a culture problem with "just following orders" even at the detriment of their own lives.
Sometimes, or sometimes they get a pass based on connections. Those aren't mutually exclusive, either; scapegoats have long been a useful political tool.
You know, I was kind of expecting like some sort of poisonous vegetable or fruit that was put on as a garnish. I was not expecting lead fucking paint.
I mean you might still be right. The lead paint was probably being used to hide the subpar or rotting vegetable/fruits they were trying to serve them, your first instinct isn't to just paint vegetables unless there's something else your trying to hide.
Legitimately wtf
Yes, that's exactly what I expected, too. What actually happened is truly baffling on multiple levels. Why???
Holy fucking fuck what