Air Pollution, Birth Defects, and the Risk in China (and Beyond)

After one particularly prolonged spell of smoggy Beijing air in late January, the Atlantic Monthly’s James Fallows posted a provocative piece online titled, “China’s Pollution: The Birth Defect Angle.” In it, he quoted troubling anecdotal e-mails from readers suggesting that China’s degraded environment was taking a heavy toll on the living and the unborn alike. Yet the short piece ended with a question, not a scientific conclusion: Do we know if prolonged exposure to polluted air, water, or food causes birth defects?

It turns out that several scientists, both inside and outside China, have been studying that question in recent years—and their answer is yes. That doesn’t mean that every woman giving birth in a polluted environment, or every child born, will experience lasting health problems, but the trend lines across a population are clear. Depending on the level of pollution and the frequency of exposure, observed impacts range from a rise in severe congenital birth defects to a greater frequency of preterm births and low birth weights, correlated with increased risk for infant mortality and for diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life.