Study: If You Want Smarter Kids, Shut Coal Plants

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.

The full study in the July 14th Environmental Health Perspectives is available online: "Benefits of Reducing Prenatal Exposure to Coal Burning Pollutants to Children's Neurodevelopment in China." The study provides yet more evidence -- if any were needed -- to ban traditional coal plants: "elimination of prenatal exposure to coalburning emissions resulted in measurable benefits to children's development." This is a very sophisticated study, which used molecular markers to directly track exposure to coal plant emissions:

"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.]

Related Posts:

• Coal is (not) clean
• Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 2.6: What is the impact of peak oil and peak coal?
• Can the coal industry be saved in spite of itself? Should it be?
• Is the World Bank Coal-fused?
• Up against a wall -- of coal
• Power plants costs double since 2000 -- Efficiency anyone?
• Coal hits a wall named Wall Street
• In seeming flipflop, Bush drops mismanaged 'NeverGen' clean coal project
• No Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN's Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
• The "other" Achilles heel of coal
• The immorality of China's coal policy is breathtaking (literally) -- Part I
• Dr. Hansen to Dr. Merkel: Carbon is forever -- so ban new traditional coal plants now

Comments

[BADEN]

Also - update the country's power distribution system by placing it underground. This would eliminate the perennial ripping down and building up of the primitive pole and wire setup that was out of date in the 20th Century, for goodness sakes.

And, build homes in Tornado Alley of cement. Period. With mandated safe rooms.

So many good things to do with focus and leadership.

[sheila]

sadly, even though Sierra Club, NRDC and their Big Energy partners plan to completely obliterate millions of acres of our nation's wilderness to build Big Solar and Big Wind energy monopolies, not one single coal plant will be retired.

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.

[KillTheMessenger]

If we are at a crossroads we are doomed to take the wrong turn. America, lately, is prone to doing that.

[KillTheMessenger]

I would agree with the conclusions that coal is not clean, no matter what and that we need to get rid of these power plants ASAP. However, I would suggest to read these studies very carefully before generalizing the results. The kind of power plant under scrutiny here is not what can be found in Europe or the US. The headline should have been

"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."

[HeevenSteven]

Big coal is part of the Republican party's permanent majority strategy; they need the low IQ pod people out in Jebus land for the base.