But . . . Can They Swim ?

[Randy W]

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Newest Pollution Concern: ‘Ugly’ Sperm

 

 

While neither the green paper nor the initial China Business Review story offered any data to support their claims, that hardly seemed to matter to the country’s microbloggers, who have long expected the worse from the air they breathe.

 

A study in July found that air pollution from coal combustion likely cut life expectancy in parts of China by more than five years during the 1990s. This week, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported a doctor saying that an eight-year old girl from the eastern province of Jiangsu had contracted lung cancer from prolonged exposure to harmful particles having lived near a dusty street.

 

The Wall Street Journal called Beijing’s United Family Healthcare for its take on what doctors should be telling their patients, but the hospital declined comment. “Our (obstetrician and gynecologist) chief refused the interview, because there is no data or document to explain the pollution’s impact to pregnant women,” wrote spokesperson Yafei Zhu.

 

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Mr. Li from the Shanghai sperm bank says it has been facing a lack of qualified sperm donors and quality sperm in the last decade, and that only one-third of its sperm meets World Health Organization standards, according to Wednesday’s report in the Shanghai Morning post. A spokesperson at Ruijin Hospital, which houses the sperm bank, said Mr. Li was not available for comment.

 

Readers of the China Business Review article were far from reticent. The post elicited 441 comments, including one that sardonically proffered a silver lining: “Yes! No need to use condoms anymore.”