At the foil factories of Zhanwang village, the pounding that usually echoes through the air as workers hammer metal sheets has fallen silent. “We’ve all refused to go to work since June 5,” says one Sichuanese worker. “If we keep working here, we will die here.”

He is one of thousands of workers in the eastern Chinese city of Yangxunqiao who have protested over the past week to demand compensation after an outbreak of lead poisoning, which state media says has left 500 adults and more than 100 children unwell.

“We’re waiting to see what the government will do to resolve this situation, and then we will leave this place,” the worker says. The lead in his blood is above 400 micrograms per decilitre, he says – more than 10 times the level considered poisonous for adults by US health standards, but judged only “moderately elevated” under Chinese rules.