Some 2,650 kilograms of the powerful rat poison "Dushuqiang," a killer in many major food poisoning cases in China in recent years, was destroyed Saturday morning in Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, as part of the country's campaign against illegal use of the poison.

The treatment will last some 70 hours and the process will be in strict accordance with state environmental protection requirements, said deputy head of Shenyang Academy of Environmental Science.

"Dushuqiang," or tetramine, appeared in 1990 and is much more poisonous than arsenic and potassium cyanide. Some five milligrams of the poison can kill a person.

A government survey shows that the powerful rat poison was used in 90.5 percent of the poisoning cases happening in the first five months this year.

The Chinese government began in July a campaign against illegal production, transportation, sale and use of the poison, in a bid to better protect the people.

So far, more than 23,300 kilograms of "Dushuqiang" has been confiscated nationwide.

According to a judicial interpretation recently issued by the Supreme People's Court, individuals involved in illegal production, sale, transportation and storage of more than 50 grams of the rat poison will be sentenced to three to ten years of imprisonment.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2003)