(Beijing) – The Ministry of Environmental Protection has found toxic chemicals in the soil under a closed pesticide factory across the street from a school in the eastern province of Jiangsu where students have developed health problems.

Students at Changzhou Foreign Languages School, a multi-lingual school for students from the seventh to 12th grades, have complained of foul-smelling air since they moved to their new campus in a suburb of Changzhou in September, Xinhua News Agency has reported.

The air has given some students sore throats or rashes, parents told the official news agency. Tainted air has even caused some students to vomit, parents complained.

The ministry said on January 29 that the odor is coming from the abandoned Jiangsu Changlong Chemicals Co. Ltd., which was operational from 2000 to 2010. The ministry said it found levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons and benzyl chloride that exceeded its standard for soil.

Exposure to total petroleum hydrocarbons, chemical compounds that come from crude oil, can harm the lungs, central nervous system, liver and kidney, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says. The chemical benzyl chloride, which is used in a range of manufacturing activities, is intensely irritating to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes.

The 153 acre campus of Changzhou Foreign Languages School has accommodated 2,800 students and faculty members since opening in September, the school's website says.

Students and parents initially thought the foul smell was from pesticide used on trees planted on the campus, one parent told Caixin, but the smell became more noticeable around December 25.

"We parents cannot even bear the smell during the brief time when we drop off and pick up our children," another parent said. "But they have to stay at school and breathe the toxic air the entire day. This is heart-wrenching."

Local officials and school administrators met with parent representatives to discuss the matter on January 6, the school's website said. Environmental officials said at the meeting that they hired an organization to monitor air quality and there was no "volatile organic compounds in the air" on January 5.

A group of 1,200 parents later wrote and signed a letter demanding to know why the school chose the site for the new campus and how the monitoring group was measuring air quality.

Classes have been canceled since January 12, one teacher told Xinhua.

(Rewritten by Chen Na)