- BANGKOK, Thailand -- Children born after the closure of a
coal-burning plant in China had 60 percent fewer developmental problems, a study
released Monday suggests, giving ammunition to those who argue the country
should embrace cleaner sources of energy.
The study in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health Perspectives journal
found that after the coal plant was shut in the midwestern city of Tongliang,
pregnant mothers living in the area had far less exposure to pollutants and
their children showed significantly fewer delays in developing motor skills such
as muscle coordination by the age of 2.
"This study provides direct evidence that the Chinese government's action to
shut down a polluting power plant had measurable benefits on the development of
children," said Frederica Perera, lead author of the study and the director of
the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in New York.
"These findings have major implications for environmental health and energy
policy in China and elsewhere," she said.
The study tested the development of two groups of about 100 children, one
group born before the Tongliang coal plant's closure in 2004 and the other born
after it was shut.
Barbara Finamore, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's China
program whose group helped researchers identify a site, said she was hopeful the
findings would persuade authorities to weigh the affordability of coal against
the health costs.
"Coal is much cheaper than the alternatives. But when you factor in the cost
of coal to children's health, it changes the equation," Finamore said. "With the
one-child policy, children are one of China's most precious resources. They
cannot afford to be raising a new generation of children with serious
developmental difficulties."
China introduced rules in the late 1970s that limit many couples to only one
child.
But Peter D. Sly, who heads the World Health Organization's Collaborating
Center for Research on Children's Environmental Health and is based in
Australia, was more cautious.
He said it was an "interesting study" that shows how reducing exposure to
pollutants during gestation can improve health outcomes for children, especially
brain development. But he said the results do not have implications for "modern,
coal-fired power stations" in China.
The Tongliang coal plant did not have pollution control equipment to limit
the emission of toxins that typically include carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide,
nitrogen oxide and particulate matter.
"My personal opinion is that modern power stations may be better, but we
don't know how much better," said Sly, who was not part of the study. "These
data are not strong enough to call for closing all coal-fired power stations but
do suggest the need for studies to examine the potential health effects of
modern, so-called, clean power stations."
China relies on coal for three-quarters of its electricity and has been slow
to switch to cleaner options such as wind, solar and hydropower.
While it has fueled the country's economic boom, the burning of coal has
caused widespread air pollution in China, contributed to worsening acid rain and
helped make the country the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.
The study found that mothers living near the coal-fired plant breathed in
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are produced when coal is burned and
were passed onto their babies through the mother's placenta. Researchers tested
the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the fetal umbilical cord blood
of the children in the two groups.
Researchers found the group that was born after the power plant closed had
40 percent lower levels of the contaminant in the cord blood and a 60 percent
reduction in the frequency of "delayed motor development."
Development delays typically reflect that a child is not meeting certain
benchmarks for his age, for example a 2-year-old who is not yet climbing stairs
well or grasping objects securely, researchers said.
All the women in the study were nonsmokers and exposure to secondhand smoke
and lead was carefully measured and recorded to ensure it did not affect the
findings, the researchers said.
"The government action of shutting down a polluting plant allowed us to do
something we couldn't do before," said Perera, who collaborated with Columbia
colleague Deliang Tang, Tin-yu Li of the Children's Hospital of Chongqing
Medical University as well as other Chinese scientists.
"In the past, almost all research has evaluated the adverse effects of
pollution," she said. "This in a very real sense is a good news story."
The China research builds on ongoing work conducted by Perera and her team
which found reduced fetal growth in babies born to mothers from coal-burning
regions of Poland who were exposed to PAH. A separate study the group did in New
York City also found that mothers exposed to more of the contaminant were likely
to have children who scored lower on mental development tests.
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