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Closure of Coal-Burning Power Plant in China Directly Linked to Improved Cognitive Development in Children |
Study Shows Benefits of Closing Plants on Early Childhood Neurodevelopment |
Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on children’s cognitive development and health according to a study released by the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. |
The study allowed researchers to
track and compare the development of two groups of children born in Tongliang, a
city in China’s Chongqing Municipality – one in utero while a coal-fired power
plant was operating in the city and one in utero after the Chinese government
had closed the plant. Among the first group of children, prenatal exposure to
coal-burning emissions was associated with significantly lower average
developmental scores and reduced motor development at age two. In the second
unexposed group, these adverse effects were no longer observed; and the
frequency of delayed motor developmental was significantly reduced. The study
findings are published in the July 14th Environmental Health Perspectives. “This study provides direct
evidence that governmental action to eliminate polluting coal-burning sources
benefits children’s neurodevelopment,” said Frederica Perera, DrPH, professor of
Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, director
of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, and lead author of
the study. “These findings have major implications for environmental health and
energy policy as they demonstrate that reduction in dependence on coal for
energy can have a measurable positive impact on children’s development and
health – in China and elsewhere.” |
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To conduct the study, researchers
from CCCEH partnered with physicians and scientists from the Children’s Hospital
of Chongqing Medical University, the School of Public Health at Fudan University
in Shanghai, and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Shanghai
Jiao Tong University. The researchers followed two successive cohorts of Chinese
newborns through age two. Children in both cohorts were born in Tongliang, a
city with a coal-fired power plant that operated seasonally until it was
shutdown by the government in May 2004. The first cohort involved 107 women
whose children were born in 2002, prior to the plant closing. The second
involved 110 women whose children were born in 2005, when the coal plant was no
longer in operation. “This is a unique environmental
intervention study using molecular techniques to demonstrate the relationship
between a cleaner environment and healthier children,” added Deliang Tang, MD,
DrPh, associate professor of clinical Environmental Health Sciences at the
Mailman School, director of the Tongliang Project, and co-author of the study. Prenatal exposure to plant
emissions was measured by a biomarker of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)
exposure in umbilical cord blood. The investigators controlled for exposures to
other pollutants, such as tobacco smoke and lead, which might have contributed
to neurodevelopment problems. Children in the first cohort had
varying exposure prenatally to PAHs emitted by the coal-fired power plant. This
exposure was recorded by monitoring the levels of PAHs in air during the
mothers’ pregnancies and in measuring a marker of PAH exposure in cord blood--
specifically the levels of PAHs bound to DNA, known as “PAH-DNA adducts”. Among
these children, the researchers found significant associations between the
marker of exposure in cord blood and delayed motor and average development at
age two. The second group of children, who were conceived after the closure of
the plant, had significantly lower levels of the marker in cord blood and their
incidence of delayed motor development was one-third that of the first cohort. Coal-fired power plants provide
the majority of the energy for China’s industry, as well as the electricity
needs of the U.S. The Chinese government has ordered the closure of older, more
polluting coal-fired power plants such as the one in Tongliang. The study is one of four parallel
international cohort studies being conducted by the CCCEH that examine the
health effects of exposure of pregnant women and babies to indoor and outdoor
air pollutants in urban areas. Additional studies are being conducted in New
York City and Krakow, Poland. The Center’s prior research
findings have shown that exposure to air pollutants are associated with an
increase in risk for developmental delays among children living in New York
City. Today’s findings contribute to a further understanding of how air
pollution impacts child health. The study is available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/11480/11480.pdf
About the Columbia
Center for Children’s Environmental Health About the Mailman
School of Public Health |
| Source: http://www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu |
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