Growth in Beijing Automobile Population Putting Kids At Risk
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 05.23.07
According to a new survey of childhood lead poisoning in 15 Chinese cities, 7 percent of kids under the age of 6 living in Beijing have lead levels in their blood that exceed the national standard. That’s obviously not good, but also not too surprising given the fact that in China virtually anything goes environmentally as long as it adds to the economic growth that keeps the Communist Party in power. Of course, that’s unless there’s a major international convention going on, and then cars miraculously disappear from the roads. As you might expect the three-year study blames rising emission levels from cars for the trend, and notes that children who live near heavily trafficked roads or in lower-level apartments are much more likely to have high blood lead levels than those who do not. Of course lead poisoning can cause developmental problems for children in critical areas such as intelligence, speaking, learning, and memorization so the damage is very real to those affected most.
Now in related news, an estimated 23.3 percent of all suspended air particles in Beijing are particulate emissions from automobiles. And how they are going to deal with this issue while car ownership rates increase at approximately 14 percent a year should be quite interesting to watch. I’m wondering if they’ll make a decree like they did with swimming caps in public pools throughout China to prevent hair from getting in the pools. Now everyone has to wear one to swim whether they like it or not, and they’ve made a real dent in the problem. But what will be the “swimming cap” for autos in a country where there are over a billion new capitalists literally walking around? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.
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Did you also know that cars are the number one killer of kids and young adults (up to 30, I believe) in the US, and that's not including the indirect effects, like pollution, obesity, and stress (from being trapped in a car with a stressed out parent :-)
So it's not just a Chinese problem. We can start right here at home by promoting local policies that increase public transit and mixed-use communities. And we can change traffic policies and laws to encourage human powered vehicles and other small, sustainable energy vehicles.
This doesn't add up. Firstly, corelation does not prove causation. More importantly, leaded gasoline has not been availablel in Beijing since October, 1997. These children with "elevated" blood levels of lead were born well after leaded gas was phased out.
In any case a national "standard" for blood levels of lead is neccessarily an arbitrary figure. Clearly, some sectors of the population will be above this "standard" level and some well below. This is a statistical reality. Without a baseline standard to compare, this information is meaningless. Nowhere is it stated that this "elevated" blood level of lead is even to a point where it would cause toxic effects.
Given that China has historically demonstrated a low regard for health and safety -- having recently exported products spiked with glycol and melamine -- blaming cars seems a little facile. Unless, of course, you happen to hate cars, in which case, the facts can always be bent to fit your grievance.