China's birth defects blamed on pollution, unhealthy living
Incidence of problems in newborns has nearly doubled in 15 years and experts say environment and unhealthy lifestyle choices are the culprits
Pollution and unhealthy lifestyle choices have contributed to a big rise in the incidence of birth defects on the mainland in the past 15 years, experts say.
Last year, birth defects were detected in 1.53 per cent of newborns in their first seven days of life, up from 1.09 per cent in 2000 and 0.87 per cent in 1996, the Ministry of Health said in September.
It said this rose to 5.6 per cent in the first five years of life because some conditions were hard to spot early on, but did not provide historical comparisons.
Citing World Health Organisation statistics, the ministry said international figures were 6.42 per cent in poor countries, 5.57 per cent in middle-income countries and 4.72 per cent in rich countries.
There are about 16 million babies born on the mainland every year.
Ma Duan, deputy director of the Research Centre for Birth Defects at Shanghai's Fudan University, said that besides improved testing technology, which helped diagnose more birth defects, the deteriorating situation could also have been caused by pollution and some "personal lifestyle factors".