Pollution blamed as China confronts surge in number of deformed babies

An alarming rise in birth defects was acknowledged by China yesterday, amid concern that heavy pollution is damaging the country


Officials said that the increase reported by the National Population and Family Planning Commission may, in part, reflect an improvement in the collection of data from rural areas. In addition, families were becoming less reluctant to report defects that in the past had been concealed out of shame.

But there was also evidence that China