Pollution: A Pressing Issue
Mikayla Schott
007848737
4 November 2013
Biology 21
Professor Poffenroth

Mikayla Schott Pollution: A Pressing Issue Pollution is one of the most harmful environmental issues our earth faces today. Pollution is defined as the initiation of contaminants into the environment. The most alarming factor about pollution is that it is almost entirely the result of human action. One of the most polluted nations is China; contrarily, though many Americans fight to protect the environment from such harm, there still exists pollution in our nation, today. Unfortunately, pollution affects everyone; however, children are suffering everywhere from their lack of knowledge of how to protect themselves from such harm, as well as the fact that much of the detrimental effects of pollution in children’s health occurs before they are even born, when they are still in the womb. Negative reports of reproductive health in China prompted scientists to look further. The effects of pollution on the development of children in China and America, though different, are comparable. Pollution in China has increased due to the rapid industrialization of the nation in the past 30 years. According to the World Bank reports in 2007, “of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, cities in China account for 16 of them.” And according to Environment and Reproductive Health in China “Air quality in China is among the worst in the world, with air pollution levels in many cities well above permissible limits, and half of the water resources in China are considered too polluted for human use.” (Weihua et al. 2012) Reproductive health in China continues to be considerably negatively affected as industrialization grows. Due to the abundant population in China and the low working wage, China was forced to rapidly grow, using little precautions when it came to industrializing safely and considering the affect on the environment. There have been surveys in China that associate environmental pollution and reproductive health, with specific pollutants in correlation with increasing reproductive damage. In Environmental Health and Reproduction in China, “Scientists investigated effects of pollution in the Black River in Henan Province... and picks up > 90% of the local industrial wastewater and domestic sewage; It was found that the incidence of malformations, low birth weight, and stillbirth was significantly higher for fertile women who lived by the river than for those who lived 5–10 km away from the river.” (Weihua et al. 2012)

This information confirms that by a decrease in industrial waste and air pollution, the health of many children would be conserved. It was found in another study that once a nearby (to the Black River) coal-fired power plant was shut down, the level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons generated by the plant was greatly reduced. Therefore, children’s neurobehavioral development was significantly improved. (Weihua et al. 2012) Another pressing issue in China is the affect of pollution in children due to lead poisoning in rural areas of China, which is also a pressing issue in America today. According to Environmental Lead Pollution “Data shows that the lead industry caused serious environmental pollution that led to high blood lead levels in children living nearby.” (Sihao Lin 2011) High BLL levels cause CNS disorders, affects kidneys, blood, and the cardiovascular system; all of which are vital during development of children. As the lead industry expands in China, it continues to wreak havoc on not only the environment, but the inhabitants as well. It is known that children are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults because of their constant “hand-to-mouth” contact, among other developmental reasons; therefore, children in China are in danger when it comes to the amount of lead being produced there. Although there have been strong efforts to contain the amount of lead production in China, and although the total average number of children with lead poisoning has gone down, children continue to be infected. The average production of lead has decreased on the big scale; however, according to Childhood Lead Poisoning in China, “there has been a substantial increase in the number of small family businesses that use lead-containing products...[therefore] children's exposure to lead is still common in many Chinese cities.” (Chong-Huai 2013) One possible solution for the pressing issue of pollution in China would be zoning. In China, there is no separation between industrial zones and residential zones, they are simply intermixed; however, if there was separation between those zones, as there is in America, the poor air quality in China could, at the very least, be contained. Similarly, pollution in America is closely correlated with China in respects to lead poisoning in many American children. Lead-based paint was a common household repair tool for many years; however, it was only in recent years that scientists found about its harmful abuse. Unfortunately, although the discovery of the poisoning in lead paint has been widely publicized throughout the United States, children of low-income families are not being treated or tested for blood lead levels. According USA Today, “[Lead poisoning] is the number-one environmental threat to children... Services have estimated that millions of youngsters have lead concentrations in the blood severe enough to cause nervous system damage... Lead poisoning is particularly harmful to the developing brain and nervous systems of fetuses and infants.” (Stevens 1995) Many reports indicate, “Inner-city children are more likely to be exposed to dangerous levels of lead [because] those who live in residences built before 1980 are at high risk of exposure because the paint on the walls most likely contain lead.” (Stevens) When lead paint chips fall off of walls, children and infants either chew on the fallen pieces, or touch them with their hands then their mouths, or the chips break down to dust molecules and children inhale the remaining contaminants. The CDC indicates that about 3,000,000 tons of lead remain in an estimated 57,000,000 occupied private housing units built before 1980, of which 14,000,000 are believed to contain lead paint. (Stevens) The majority of low-income housing are older homes or apartments and the children and adults residing in those properties are at a much higher risk of poisoning than other families or residents in the U.S. Another increasing epidemic in America today is the rise of the number of children who have asthma. Scientists believed that the rise in Asthma was due to the amount of air toxics that children are susceptible to. “Air toxics are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as respiratory, reproductive, and birth defects; they are emitted from a wide range of sources including mobile, industrial areas, and indoors.” (Stoner 2013) However, this study concluded that although asthma is a growing issue, the presence of outdoor air toxins were not correlated with asthma in children. So what is causing more asthma and allergies in children in America? Though there have been many studies done to conclude the answer to that question, it is unknown the exact cause of the rise of asthma in children; however, there are plenty of solutions to this problem, even if the source is unknown. According to the hygiene hypothesis, exposing children to the outdoors and getting them to come in contact with their allergies or having them calmly breathe through an asthma attack, children are more likely to abandon their allergies and symptoms. The continuing issue of lead poisoning in children in homes built before 1980; however, remains. One possible solution to the continued amount of children susceptible to lead poisoning would be government regulated home inspections, and an increased knowledge of just how dangerous lead poisoning can be. There is a notable difference in the air quality and efforts made for an even cleaner environment in America. Though America has clean drinking water and cleaner air, lead poisoning is the number one most dangerous environmental factor to children in the United States. There has been considerably more efforts to decrease lead poisoning in the United States in recent years; however, we are far from “done” with respects to the health of our environment. Though levels of environmental pollution differ among the two countries, both China and America have a long ways to go before they completely rid the burden of pollution. The pollution in China is considerably more dangerous and detrimental to children because of the increased harm and little action taken to reduce it; however, Americas pollution is still harmful and dangerous to children and their development. The two countries are comparable in the sense that they both contain high levels of lead poisoning victims. Though there have been a considerable amount of laws passed in the U.S. to reduce the harm of lead poisoning, there is still always more that can be done to save the environment and the residents of it. China is currently taking little action against air pollution; however, their efforts to decrease the amount of lead poisoning are notable.

Literatures Cited

Chong-huai Yan, Xu J, Xiao-ming Shen. 2013. Childhood lead poisoning in china: Challenges and opportunities. Environ Health Perspect 121(10):A294-5.

Li W, Chen B, Ding X. 2012. Environment and reproductive health in china: Challenges and opportunities. Environ Health Perspect 120(5):A184-5.

Lin S, Wang X, Yu ITS, Tang W, Miao J, Li J, Wu S, Lin X. 2011. Environmental lead pollution and elevated blood lead levels among children in a rural area of china. Am J Public Health 101(5):834-41.

Maxwell R. 2013. Lead wars: The politics of science and the fate of america's children. Libr J 138(9):96-.

Newman N, Lowry J, Mall J, Berger M, Zhang N, Baker HW, Elliott MR. 2013. An ongoing lack of knowledge about lead poisoning. Am J Public Health 103(10):e9-e10.

Stevens AL. 1995. Lead poisoning: The plague of america's inner cities. USA Today Magazine 124(2602):88.

Stoner AM, Anderson SE, Buckley TJ. 2013. Ambient air toxics and asthma prevalence among a representative sample of US kindergarten-age children. Plos One 8(9):1-.