Students allegedly poisoned in school seek help on microblog after petition for aid went ignored by local authorities in NE China

Students claiming to be from a junior high school in northeast China’s Jilin are turning to Weibo, a popular microblogging platform in China, for help, after they have been diagnosed with formaldehyde poisoning due to exposure to the toxic substance at school.

The post, written in the name of all the third grade students of Xin'aili Township Junior High School in Da'an city, Jilin province, said students there have been experiencing symptoms such as constant coughing, nausea, and vomiting because the school's newly built dormitories and the desks and chairs purchased by the school contained an excessive amount of formaldehyde.

The students have been diagnosed with formaldehyde poisoning by a local hospital and the situation is very serious; their parents had turned to relevant departments for help but were ignored, the post read.

Photos uploaded in the post show some students holding CT scan results from the hospital, and a close-up, in particular, shows prominently red blood vessels on the white part of a student's eye.

The post was reposted over 37,000 times within 10 hours and was addressed by the official Weibo account of China's Communist Youth League, who urged its organizations in Jilin to verify and provide legal help for students affected.