Birth defects show human price of coal
By Phyllis Xu and Lucy Hornby GAOJIAGOU, China (Reuters) – Ten-year old Yilong is already a statistic. Born at the center of China’s coal industry, the boy is mentally handicapped and is unable to speak. He is one of many such children in Shanxi province, where coal has brought riches to a few, jobs for many, and environmental pollution that experts say has led to a high number of babies born with birth defects. Experts say coal mining and processing has given Shanxi a rate of birth defects six times higher than China’s national average, which is already high by global standards. “They looked normal when they were born. But they were still unable to talk or walk over a year later,” said farmer Hu Yongliang, 38, whose two older children are mentally handicapped. “They learnt to walk at the age of six or seven. They are very weak. Nobody knows what the problem is.” Hu’s thirteen-year-old daughter Yimei can only say one word, while her brother Yilong is unable to talk at all. The two spend most of the day playing in their small courtyard, where their mother Wang Caiying tends to their every need and tries to shield them from the neighbors’ prejudice. “I never let them go out, I don’t want people to laugh at my children. They stay in this courtyard every day,” said Wang, who looks older than her 36 years. “I am especially worried about my son. He doesn’t know how to take care of himself. I have to do everything for him.” The number of birth defects in Chinese infants soared nearly 40 percent from 2001 to 2006, China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission said in a 2007 report.
