A Beijing-based NGO has filed an environmental public interests litigation against a kindergarten whose plastic running tracks allegedly made students sick.

The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) said it found that the running tracks at Wanxiang Kindergarten in Chaoyang district of Beijing gave off a strong acidic smell after it was put into use in April and many children at the kindergarten began to develop nosebleeds, sore eyes, fever and skin allergies.

However, the kindergarten turned down the NGO’s request to remove the running tracks based on the accusation that they may be causing air and soil pollution and threatening the students’ health.

In response, the NGO filed the litigation to No.4 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing on Tuesday.

“This is the first environmental public interest litigation filed by CBCGDF regarding a ‘polluted campus.’ After several fruitless attempts for communications and negotiations, we can only resort to litigation to solve the problem and protect children’s health,” Ma Yong, vice secretary of CBCGDF, told reporters.

Several Chinese schools have been haunted by pollution on campus, from eastern China’s Jiangsu province to Beijing, with many underage students diagnosed with health abnormalities. The nation is also appalled at media reports revealing that some plastic running tracks are made of industrial waste.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Wednesday that it had ordered local education authorities to remove all substandard running tracks at schools after children reportedly fell sick, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The MOE said it had also invited environmental protection and quality inspection authorities to check all newly-built race tracts at schools nationwide to immediately remove substandard ones.