Congenital Heart Disease In Lead As Chinese Birth Defects Up 70%+ In 15 Years - Now 15 Per Thousand

[hatrack]

In China the birth defect rate has jumped from 8.77 per 1,000 in 1996, to 15 per 1,000 in 2010, according to Report on Women and Children’s Health Development published on Sept. 21. Experts attributed the 70.9 percent surge to environmental pollution.

According to the Jinghua Times, the top five inborn defects in hospital tests in 2010 were congenital heart disease, extra toes or fingers, cleft lip, congenital hydrocephalus (“water in the brain”), and neural tube defect (exposure of the brain or spinal cord at birth); congenital heart disease was ranked number one.

Li Senkai, former deputy director of Cosmetic Surgery of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said food pollution is the primary cause of cleft lips and penile hypospadias (an unnatural development of the penis). When manufacturers of animal feed add estrogen, the ultimate victims are newborns. Mr. Chen, a pediatric expert from Jinan, Shandong Province, told The Epoch Times that in recent years the rate of deformity among newborns has risen significantly. Chen believes the main reasons are changes in the environment, climate, and food contamination.

Environmental factors include chronic air pollution, contaminated milk and adulterated products like “gutter oil,” which lead to long term toxicity—which is difficult to detect without an outbreak. “Toxins are everywhere and impossible to avoid. Since we cannot change the overall environment, we can only try to protect ourselves,” he said.

EDIT

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/birth-defects-in-china-jump-70-percent-in-15-years-62399.html

[MADem]

1. The perils of rapid industrialization, without a care to the environment.

It doesn't take all that much time, does it?

[d_r]

2. to be intellectually honest

Some portion of that increase (not all or even most) is PROBABLY due to better medical care, such that some of the children who are counted in the birth defect group today would have been counted in the infant mortality column 15 years ago. But most of that increase is surely due to increased teratogens in the environment.

[PearliePoo2]

3. I'm in the habit of checking food-stuffs "Country Of Origin".

If it's "From China", I don't buy it.
Sadly, "From Japan" is also now on my avoid list. (tea, seaweed, seafood and rice to name a few)

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. The big shocker is that they got there before we did.