Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned

NEW: A nursery owner in China has been jailed for life after she and five staff used inedible, lead-tainted paint in meals to make them look more appealing, poisoning more than 200 children.

A nursery owner in China has been jailed for life for poisoning more than 200 children with lead.

Li Huifang ran the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in Gansu province. A court found she and her staff told kitchen workers to add inedible paint to the children's food, to make the meals look brighter and attract more students. The paint was clearly labelled as not for consumption. They used it anyway.

In July last year, 247 pupils and staff tested with abnormally high blood lead levels. Samples of the steamed date cakes and corn sausage rolls showed lead at more than 2,000 times China's safety limit. The court in Lanzhou sentenced Li to life, her executive principal to 15 years, and four kitchen staff to between six and eight years. Officials and hospital workers were also found to have tampered with blood tests to cover it up.

The World Health Organization says lead can severely damage a child's brain and nervous system. For many of those children, this sentence doesn't undo what was done.

This is Angel Manalo, reporting for HIT.