For GSS Population Growth chapter 5.
Excerpt: ...Levels of deadly pollutants up to 40 times the recommended
exposure limit in Beijing and other cities have struck fear into
parents and led them to take steps that are radically altering the
nature of urban life for their children. Parents are confining sons and
daughters to their homes, even if it means keeping them away from
friends. Schools are canceling outdoor activities and field trips.
Parents with means are choosing schools based on air-filtration systems,
and some international schools have built gigantic, futuristic-looking
domes over sports fields to ensure healthy breathing. “I hope in the
future we’ll move to a foreign country,” Ms. Zhang, a lawyer, said as
her ailing son, Wu Xiaotian, played on a mat in their apartment, near a
new air purifier. “Otherwise we’ll choke to death.” ...Scientific
studies justify fears of long-term damage to children and fetuses. A
study published by The New England Journal of Medicine showed that
children exposed to high levels of air pollution can suffer permanent
lung damage. The research was done in the 1990s in Los Angeles, where
levels of pollution were much lower than those in Chinese cities today. A
study by California researchers published last month suggested a link
between autism in children and the exposure of pregnant women to
traffic-related air pollution. Columbia University researchers, in a
study done in New York, found that prenatal exposure to air pollutants
could result in children with anxiety, depression and attention-span
problems. Some of the same researchers found in an earlier study that
children in Chongqing, China, who had prenatal exposure to high levels
of air pollutants from a coal-fired plant were born with smaller head
circumferences, showed slower growth and performed less well on
cognitive development tests at age 2. The shutdown of the plant resulted
in children born with fewer difficulties. ...Some children’s hospitals
in northern China reported a large number of patients with respiratory
illnesses this winter, when the air pollution soared. During one bad
week in January, Beijing Children’s Hospital admitted up to 9,000
patients a day for emergency visits, half of them for respiratory
problems, according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.
...Face masks are now part of the urban dress code.... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/pollution-is-radically-changing-childhood-in-chinas-cities.html.
Edward Wong, New York Times. |
Updates >