Environmental pollution has posed an ever-increasing threat to the sustainable development and even to human health in China under the rapid economic growth and the lack of concomitant environmental protection; a case in point is the well known as Shangba "cancer" village,located in northern Guangdong Province,China.This village has been polluted by multi-metals from wastewater originated from the opencast mining in Dabaoshan,which is about 25 km away since 1970.The residents continue to use the wastewater in the river for rice irrigation.The soil has been heavily polluted by heavy metals such as Cd,Cu,Zn,Pb and As.The food chain pollution through drink water,rice and vegetables has caused significant negative health effects to the local people,especially cancers that occurred in digestive system and renal calculus.A detailed investigation on the pollution starus in the sediments,river water,well water,soil,rice and vegetables has been carried out since 2005.The percentage of heavy metal pollution over the national soil environmental standard (Grade Ⅱ) in Shangba agricultural soil was 100%,46.51%,100%,71.10%,and 4.4% for As,Cd,Cu,Zn and Pb respectively,and in rice was 50%,52.20%,4.8%,4.00% for As,Cd,Cu,Zn respectively.The averaged daily uptake of cadmium can be 3.6 times as high as the WHO standard.Cadmium and arsenic in urine were also determined and the possible causes of the negative health effects were discussed.