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China's deformed Babies

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An alarming rise in birth defects was acknowledged by China yesterday, amid concern that heavy pollution is damaging the country’s children.

Babies born with conditions such as cleft palates and extra fingers and toes now account for up to 6 per cent of births each year, according to statistics published yesterday. And the number of babies born with disabilities has increased by 40 per cent since 2001 – a period that has coincided with China’s meteoric economic growth – to between two and three million a year. Up to 12 million more develop defects in childhood.
Mr_Costello

7 responses // China's deformed Babies

  • http://www.operationsmile.org/?cid=3&gclid=CIak8NqMt48C...
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    Operation Smile's next trip abroad
    should be to China!
    Tori
  • My brother was born with a Cleft palette and lip. It caused him a lot of problems growing up, but thankfully we had good medical care for him, and nobody can tell now!
    curleysound
  • Sad, and scary.
    Tarapotamus
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21wwln-ideal...
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    Criminal Element
    Has the Clean Air Act done more to fight crime than any other policy in American history? That is the claim of a new environmental theory of criminal behavior.
    covelogibbs
  • So sad. I would love to adopt some of these children; many of them--particularly girls born with disabilities--are given up to orphanages... It's a pity China doesn't allow black people to adopt their children (I'm doing a pod that deals with transracial adoption).
    FridaKahloLives
  • Is the culprit coal? Typically a coal-fired power plant emits about 3.3 times the amount of radioactive material into the environment that a nuclear plant does for a similar amount of power produced.

    This is due to the fact that coal contains radioactive material, mostly uranium and thorium, at about 4 parts per million. Now this does not seem like a lot until the quantity of coal a 1000 megawatt plant will burn in a day, around 11,000 tons, is considered. This works out to be roughly 40 kilos of radioactive material (88 pounds) each day. About 10% of this will be released to the atmosphere and the rest will end up in the ash pile and subject to weathering. If proper scrubbers are in place as little as 1% could reach the atmosphere, but this is still rather significant given the tonnage of coal burned for electric generation.

    Additionally there is the radon present in coal that is directly vented to the atmosphere by mining operations and the smaller amounts of more dangerous radioactive elements like radioactive potassium or phosphorous.

    dcsmitty
  • So the government is admitting these children were born this way due to their policies? This is criminal.
    JanforGore

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