【大西洋月刊20130129】从新生儿出生缺陷角度审视中国污染
本帖最后由 diver18 于 2013-1-30 14:24 编辑【中文标题】从新生儿出生缺陷角度审视中国污染
【原文标题】China's Pollution: The Birth Defect Angle
【登载媒体】the Atlantic 大西洋月刊
【原文作者】JAMES FALLOWS 詹姆斯法洛斯
【原文链接】http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/01/chinas-pollution-the-birth-defect-angle/272617/
【中文译者】丁雨晴
【中文链接】http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/01/chinas-pollution-the-birth-defect-angle/272617/
不知怎么搞的，文体被硬生生截断，我等会补上。
http://bbs.m4.cn/xwb/images/bgimg/icon_logo.png 该贴已经同步到 diver18的微博 [社会] 【大西洋月刊20130129】从新生儿出生缺陷角度审视中国污染
【中文标题】从新生儿出生缺陷角度审视中国污染
【原文标题】China's Pollution: The Birth Defect Angle
【登载媒体】the Atlantic 大西洋月刊
【原文作者】JAMES FALLOWS 詹姆斯法洛斯
【原文链接】http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/01/chinas-pollution-the-birth-defect-angle/272617/
【中文译者】丁雨晴
【中文链接】http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-01/30/c_124299894.htm
从新生儿出生缺陷角度审视中国污染
美国《大西洋月刊》网站1月29日文章，原题：从出生缺陷角度审视中国污染
上周，我提到中国最近污染的影响。一些读者就此提出看法，其中一名美国读者写道：
“我从事国际领养工作。过去10年来就从中国领养的儿童而言，无确切医疗需求的婴儿正急剧减少。有明显医疗需求的孩子数量正迅速增多。每月我都在安置有各种身体缺陷的孩子(年龄在9个月到14岁)，包括唇裂或腭裂，缺少手脚趾、胳膊或腿，内部器官畸形等。
尽管在任何像中国这样的人口大国，都会出现一些有出生缺陷的婴儿，但持续的传言称，中国严峻的污染导致此类孩子大幅增多。其中一些病情复杂、难以治愈我不知道这对仍在发展中的中国会造成何种影响。
上世纪90年代初，我生活在前苏联国家。当时环境退化已成为大问题，我碰到的每个人，无论何种政治立场，都认为这和共产主义体制崩溃不无关系。我坚信北京很清楚这点。”
另一名一直在华生活和工作并接受过专业培训的读者写道：
“我怀疑成长过程中呼吸和吃进重金属将阻碍儿童大脑发育。这并非难以置信，若他们食用的蔬菜在生长期间处于富含重金属的土壤和空气中，喝的水被金属和挥发性有机化合物所污染，吸进的大气充斥着可通过肺泡进入血液和大脑的粉尘颗粒，显然将延缓儿童大脑的发育。
人们不禁要问，这种问题还能引发何种病态？难道他们在构建一个将特定精神失调症状视为常态的社会？难道我们认为这种大规模的紊乱只是现代中国文化而已？”
需澄清的是，我个人并不知道中国的重金属和其他污染物是否真的在导致出生缺陷和儿童认知障碍。我没资格评判科学文献。但我确实知道，中国如今的污染程度令人惊心，(甚至)中国媒体也发出警告。世界其他地区已表明有毒物质的确会引发身心缺陷和疾病。这是中国的一个大问题，其严峻程度或许已超出中国人的认知水平。
Diver18注：这句话作者告诉大家，以上他说的都是没有根据的废话。
China's Pollution: The Birth Defect Angle
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/jamesfallows/Guomao.jpg-jpg
Last week I mentioned the effects that China's latest pollution emergency was having on Chinese citizens and foreigners living there. Here's a picture posted on Twitter just now from a friend in Beijing, showing the view from the 30th floor out toward our former neighborhood.
Some related notes that have come in, about a problem increasingly recognized inside China as a national emergency. From a reader in the United States:
I work in international adoption.One of the biggest changes in the last ten years is the precipitous drop in the number of infants with no identified medical needs available for adoption from China.This is a hugely contentious topic within the adoption community, and I'll spare you most of it.
However, along with the disappearance of children with no identified medical needs, we have seen a huge increase in the number of children with identified medical needs.Every month, I place children (from 9 months to 14 years) who have cleft lip and/or cleft palate; missing fingers, hands, toes, parts of arms or legs; malformed internal organs; genetic disorders; etc.
While any country with a population as large as China's will have some number of children born with birth defects, there are persistent rumors that the horrendous pollution in China has led to a huge increase such births in China.This, combined with the one-child policy, has led to orphanages being filled with special needs children, some of whom have very complex and difficult medical needs.In addition, children remaining in families often have less obvious medical issues that affect their ability to live full lives.
effect that this is going to have on China as it continues to develop....
I lived in in the early 90s.Environmental degradation was a huge issue, and one that everyone I met, whatever their politics, agreed had contributed to the collapse of the communist system.I bet the party officials in Beijing know that very well.
From another reader, this link to an article on the possible relationship between certain forms of pollution and autism. And from a technically trained reader who has been living and working in China:
I suspect that breathing and eating all that heavy metal as children growing up would definitely retard brain development....
It is not hard to believe, if the vegetables they ate spent the entire season grown in soil and air laden with heavy metals, the water they drank is contaminated with metals and VOCs , and the air the breath is full of PM2.5 dust which can pass through the alveoli sacs into the blood stream, and through the blood/brain barrier, directly into their growing brains.Certainly, we are aware of how heavy metals retard brain development...
One must wonder, in addition to mild retardation, what other personality disorders can result from this disruption in normal development of the brain, from birth onward.Are they building a society where certain psychological disorders are the norm?Are we seeing this mass disorder and mis-diagnosing it as just the modern Chinese culture?
To be entirely clear here: I don't personally know whether heavy-metal and other pollutant burdens in China are in fact causing birth defects and cognitive disorders. I'm not in a position to judge the scientific literature. But I do know that the pollution level in China is terrible; that (even) the Chinese press is sounding the warning about the effects; and that in other parts of the world toxins have of course been shown to cause physical and mental defects and diseases. This is a very big problem in China, perhaps even bigger than people there yet know.
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