It's a very good thing that neural tube defects are relatively rare in the U.S., because they are very cruel conditions for a newborn to suffer. The two most common types of such birth defects are spina bifida – in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close properly — and anencephaly, in which a large portion of the brain and skull are simply missing. There are about 3,000 babies born in the U.S. with neural tube defects each year, or about .75 for every thousand live births.
The numbers are much grimmer in China, particularly in the Shanxi province, where there are roughly 14 neural-tube defect babies born per thousand. The Shanxi province is also flat-out filthy — an environmental disaster area, awash in what are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which include various kinds of pesticides as well as byproducts of burning coal and oil. The association between environmental cause and birth defect effect seemed impossible to deny, but until now, a rigorous study of the link had not been fully conducted.
Now, thanks to a 10-year collaboration between investigators at the University of Texas at Austin and Peking University, it has, and the results are sobering. According to findings recently published the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Shanxi kids exposed to pesticides and fossil fuel pollutants in utero have a 450% increased risk of neural tube defects, compared to other, unexposed kids.
"We've suspected for a while that some of these pollutants are related to an increase in birth defects," says Richard Finnell, professor of nutritional sciences and lead author of the paper, "but we haven't always had the evidence to show it."
EDIT
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/10/19/how-chinese-babies-pay-the-price-for-chinese-pollution/