ABSTRACTCHINA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SOFT TARGET ON HUMAN HEALTH: A MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY STUDY OF HAZE POLLUTION IMPACTS ON MATERNAL AND INFANT HEALTH IN XIANYANG 2008-2016 By Qiong Zhang Since the adoption of economic reform in 1978, China has invested heavily in industry, commercial and residential construction, and transportation in the country. The rural-to-urban migration in search of economic opportunities has led to rapid sprawling of China’s large and mid-sized cities. Outdated environmental policies and lack of strict regulation and control of harmful stationary and mobile sources of air pollution have led to high haze concentrations and growing public health concerns in China. As one of the most vulnerable population groups, as well as the core of every family, the public is concerned that haze will cause detrimental health effects on the people in general, and among pregnant women, mothers and infants in particular. The goals of this dissertation research are to understand the history and evolution of Chinese environmental policies and to investigate the impacts of maternal haze exposure on maternal health and adverse birth outcomes in a mid-sized city in China. The objectives are (1) to review and summarizes the evolution of environmental policies and regulations from a structuralist perspective to understand the origin and persistence of rising haze in the country; (2) to utilize remote sensing imagery and ground monitoring sites, to conduct a haze assessment in Xianyang City, a mid-sized city experiencing rising levels of haze due to urban expansion and increased vehicle transportation and industrial emissions; and (3) to conduct an investigation of haze impacts on maternal and infant health in Xianyang City, utilizing a primary dataset of a sample of infants born at Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine First Affiliated Hospital from January 2008 to December 2016. A Human Ecology conceptual framework is used to understand the relationships among haze, maternal and infant health, and environmental and health policies. The findings from this study showed even though China has a long history and rich variety of environmental policies and regulations, the hierarchical structure in the Target Pyramid System and the highly consistent party consciousness in the “One Position Two Jobs” system have limited government officials from enacting environmental protection to ensure public health. The effect of this limitation is demonstrated by observations of aerosol loading using satellite imagery, specifically the Ultraviolet Aerosol Index (UVAI) obtained from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) carried by Aura satellite. OMI imagery data showed that Xianyang has experienced significant increasing trends in severity, duration, and coverage of haze from 2008 to 2016. In terms of public health, maternal exposure to increasing haze levels during the first and third trimesters had significant effects on lowering infant’s birth weight. Maternal co-morbidities including Cardiomyopathy, Chronic Maternal Co-Morbidity, Diabetes, Gynecology, Hypertension and Obstetric Maternal Co-Morbidity mediate the haze exposure and reduced birth weight relationships. These findings demonstrate that chronic exposure to high dosages of haze has negative effects on mother’s health, which in turn impacts infant health as evidenced by significant lowering of birth weight. In conclusion, under the Chinese Communist Party’s managing priority pyramid, maintaining the bureaucratic legitimacy of the party and pursuing economic development are Superior Target goals. However, to ensure population health, it is important to entitle public health and health care professional to receive authoritative power to provide environmental health education particularly for susceptible population groups such as pregnant women, mothers and infants about the untoward health effects of environmental pollution.
Read
