Guiyu is a town

Town (China)

When referring to political divisions of China, town is the standard English translation of the Chinese 鎮 . It is a fourth-level administrative unit, i.e...

 on the South China Sea

South China Sea

The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...

 coast, infamous in the global environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

 community for its reception of E-waste

Electronic waste

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. There is a lack of consensus as to whether the term should apply to resale, reuse, and refurbishing industries, or only to product that cannot be used for its...

.

Administration

Guiyu is a Town

Town (China)

When referring to political divisions of China, town is the standard English translation of the Chinese 鎮 . It is a fourth-level administrative unit, i.e...

, in the district of Chaoyang, in the municipality of Shantou

Shantou

Shantou , historically known as Swatow or Suátao, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, with a total population of 5,391,028 as of 2010 and an administrative area of...

, in Southern China's Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

 Province.

Electronic waste

Guiyu is the largest E-waste site on earth, and was first documented fully in December 2001 by the Basel Action Network

Basel Action Network

The Basel Action Network is an non-governmental charitable organization working to combat the export of toxic waste, toxic technology and toxic products from industrialized societies to developing countries. BAN operates globally but is based in Seattle, Washington, United States, with a partner...

 in their report and documentary film entitled Exporting Harm. The health and environmental issues exposed by this report and subsequent scientific studies have greatly concerned international organizations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

 and the United Nations Environment Programme

United Nations Environment Programme

The United Nations Environment Programme coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its...

 and the Basel Convention

Basel Convention

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known simply as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of...

.

The burning off of plastics in the town has resulted in 80% of its children having dangerous levels of lead in their blood.