Environmental Pollution

Posted on 24 March 2009.

An official from China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission recently blamed environmental pollution for an alarming rise in the number of babies with birth defects. An earlier report said that the rate of defects had risen 40% between 2001 and 2006 – from 104.9 to 145.5 per 10,000 births.

Jiang Fan, the population official, said that a child is born with physical defects every 30 seconds because of the degrading environment. “The number of newborns with birth defects is constantly increasing in both urban and rural areas,” he continued (BBC).

An Huanxiao, director of the family planning agency in Shanxi province, claimed, “The problem of birth defects is related to environmental pollution, especially in eight main coal zones” (BBC). Shanxi province is in China’s coal-mining heartland. A screening programme has now been introduced in the eight worst-affected provinces.

Anyone who has travelled in China will be aware of the very poor air quality. The majority of large cities are regularly covered by a grey haze; blue sky days are a rare occurrence. This air pollution has a significant effect on the health of those living in the cities. “If I went to town and blew my nose,” wrote one resident, “the tissue was streaked with black grease. This made me think about how the air was affecting my lungs, and for a while I wondered what could be done about this. Finally I decided to stop looking at tissues after I blew my nose” (from ‘River Town’ by Peter Hessler). About 1.28 million people in China die from chronic lung diseases each year.

In rural areas, water pollution is a major threat. China’s Caijing magazine reports, “Water pollution is often blamed for stomach and liver cancer death rates that exceed world averages. The media has described many villages plagued by cancers of the digestive system, which medical experts link to polluted drinking water. Environmentalist Huo Daishan told Caijing that most ‘cancer villages’ are near sources of water ranked high for pollutants.”

Press through in prayer concerning this major problem in China. Pray for real breakthroughs that will reduce the levels of both air and water pollution.

Pray that officials will recognise the seriousness of this issue and make concentrated efforts to find effective solutions.

Pray that China’s people would take greater responsibility for their own environment and do what they can as individuals to reduce pollution.

Pray for the Lord’s supernatural protection of the health of those who have moved to China to serve His purposes.