A new study by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health finds
Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on children's cognitive development and health....[P]renatal exposure to coal-burning emissions was associated with significantly lower average developmental scores and reduced motor development at age two. In the second unexposed group, these adverse effects were no longer observed; and the frequency of delayed motor developmental was significantly reduced.
"This is a unique environmental intervention study using molecular techniques to demonstrate the relationship between a cleaner environment and healthier children," added Deliang Tang, MD, DrPh, associate professor of clinical Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School, director of the Tongliang Project, and co-author of the study.
Prenatal exposure to plant emissions was measured by a biomarker of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure in umbilical cord blood. The investigators controlled for exposures to other pollutants, such as tobacco smoke and lead, which might have contributed to neurodevelopment problems.
Children in the first cohort had varying exposure prenatally to PAHs emitted by the coal-fired power plant. This exposure was recorded by monitoring the levels of PAHs in air during the mothers' pregnancies and in measuring a marker of PAH exposure in cord blood-- specifically the levels of PAHs bound to DNA, known as "PAH-DNA adducts". Among these children, the researchers found significant associations between the marker of exposure in cord blood and delayed motor and average development at age two. The second group of children, who were conceived after the closure of the plant, had significantly lower levels of the marker in cord blood and their incidence of delayed motor development was one-third that of the first cohort.
Bottom line: If you don't want to your children to be dummies, join the fight to shut down dirty coal plants.
(h/t Coal is dirty!)
[My first photoshopped image! Technically, Corel Paint Shop Pro.]
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And, build homes in Tornado Alley of cement. Period. With mandated safe rooms.
So many good things to do with focus and leadership.
all that needs to happen is for Americans to have a shot at reducing consumption and generating renewable power on their properties and nearly all coal plants could be shut down very soon. the problem is that Big Energy wants to keep its chokehold, so they are going through a laborious, lengthy process of systematically destroying intact ecosystems, building out huge powerlines and power plants (all on our dime, which is the beauty of it for them), and fully ensuring they will continue to manipulate supplies and pricing even when the fuel is sun and wind and is available to us all.
unless we speak out loudly and clearly and demand adequate, free market, local, point of use renewable power generation policies like Germany, Japan and Spain have, we will see coal continue to poison and kill us and the planet, while delusional Big Enviros kill off the rest of the planet with their Big Solar and Big Wind projects.
we are at a crossroads. speak up now, or you will have missed your chance.
"If the Chinese want smarter and healthier kids, they need to clean up their act."
In the US I would say the proper headline should still be
"If American parents want smarter kids, they need to turn off the tv or get rid of it completely."