The Leading Cause Of Infant Deaths Exposed

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Monday, June 27, 2011

Editor’s Note: Every year, one in every 33 babies (about 120,000) born in the United States enters the world with a birth defect. Thousands of different birth defects have been identified and birth defects are the leading cause of death in the first year of life. Still, we don’t know the cause of most birth defects – an especially scary fact for any pregnant woman hoping to protect her unborn child. Today, we highlight this vast gap in understanding and one organization valiantly fighting to turn things around.

Rachel Thomas, Birth Defect Research for Children:

Why Aren’t Birth Defects A National Priority?

I was very moved when I read the “Our Story” portion of the Healthy Child Healthy World website. Like Nancy Chuda, I was also exposed to pesticides during my pregnancy. My previous employer decided to ignore the pesticide company’s warning not to spray an area where a pregnant woman was present. The office manager assured me that they wouldn’t spray pesticides in the office but then did so behind my back and told me about it weeks later. (By law, pesticide companies do not have to post a sign inside any building notifying people that they applied pesticides; oddly they are required to post signs outdoors only.)

I was very upset at the time because I knew that this could put my baby at risk. I hoped for the best but unfortunately my daughter was born with several birth defects. The injustice of this situation really bothered me. I decided to research the environmental causes of birth defects to see what I could do to help others from falling victim to this type of situation.

What I discovered was shocking to me. No government agency or research center was monitoring all the pre-natal environmental exposures of parents who have children with birth defects or childhood illnesses. The only organization monitoring the pre-natal exposures of both parents was Birth Defect Research for Children (BDRC) through their National Birth Defect Registry.

Birth Defect Research for Children’s (BDRC) mission is to find the causes of birth defects. Their National Birth Defect Registry (NBDR) is a powerful tool they use in discovering those causes. The Registry was designed through a collaboration of seven prominent scientists. It collects information on all categories of structural and functional birth defects as well as the health, genetic and environmental exposure histories of the mothers and fathers. The data are then analyzed to look for patterns of birth defects. Pattern identification is how most of the major environmental causes of birth defects were first discovered including the effects of thalidomide, radiation, rubella, methyl mercury, DES, Dilantan and others.

Although my story has a happy ending and my daughter is doing extremely well today, many other children born this year will not be so “lucky” because birth defects remain the leading cause of infant death in the United States. According to state birth defect registry statistics, many birth defects are rising significantly. For example birth defects such as Gastroschisis, Atrial Septal Defect and Hypospadias are showing prevalence rate increases of over 100% in some states.

According to the National Research Council, a woman who gets pregnant today has a 50% chance of losing her baby or having a baby with a birth defect or chronic illness. The health of our children is important on so many levels – social, emotional and economic. In 2004, birth defects accounted for hospital costs totaling $2.6 billion. Add that to the additional services that will be needed to accommodate the significant increase in conditions like Autism and asthma, and we’re looking at astronomical cost. According to a recent report from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, it costs $76 billion to cover the health expenses of American children because of exposure to pollutants.

In light of these sobering statistics, it seems that finding the causes of birth defects and developmental disabilities should be a national priority. At the bare minimum each state should track the number of birth defects in their state to help identify a base line and to document increases that need to be investigated. Yet Alabama, Pennsylvania, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and South Dakota and the District of Columbia do not have birth defect registries at all and one of the largest states, California, only monitors 70,000 out of 526,774 births each year.

If you are concerned about the rate of birth defects in your community, please contact Birth Defect Research for Children. And, if you want more information about participating in the National Birth Defect Registry, click here.

FInd Out More:

Posted by oxanaluna on 07/12/2011 at 05:07 PM

If there is the FDA, why not have a similar agency where all the chemical substances will have to pass an inspection to make sure none of the ingredients have an ill effect on children, pregnant women and adults in general, before they hit the market? Laws take too long to make and there are always big companies lobbying the government not to pass laws that might infringe on their bottom line. Let’s just go around it!

Posted by Joseph Karanja on 07/11/2011 at 07:59 AM

Is there a law that controls the use of pesticides, especially in crowded areas?

Posted by E. Dabuleanu on 07/06/2011 at 11:39 AM

It is distinctly a shame that the department of Environmental Control is not mandating laws and prevention programs to protect the future generation.
Many people are unaware of the potential side effects of these chemicals and they trust the companies and fail to read the labels. The responsibility should therefore be on the producers to avoid the use of such toxic chemicals and the appropriate Ministry to ensure compliance.

Posted by Janelle Sorensen on 07/05/2011 at 09:58 AM

Galina- 50% is an awfully high number, but it is indeed true. But, it’s important to understand this number includes miscarriages, 20-30% of which happen so early in pregnancy a woman often doesn’t even know she’s pregnant yet. This statistic comes from a very interesting book published by the National Research Council about how we are just beginning to understand how toxics in our environment can impact development from the moment of conception:

National Research Council. Scientific frontiers in developmental toxicology and risk assessment. National Academy Press; Washington DC, 2000.

Posted by Galina on 07/02/2011 at 01:05 PM

“a woman who gets pregnant today has a 50% chance of losing her baby or having a baby with a birth defect or chronic illness.”

I found the article very agreeable until I read this line. This cannot possible be true! It must be an exaggeration and to me undermines the credibility of the whole article. I usually very much enjoy reading the articles on this site but it is so disappointing to see such a sketchy statistic in an otherwise sobering article.

Posted by oxanaluna on 07/01/2011 at 02:26 PM

If we can grow organic vegetables and fruit without pesticides why do we HAVE to use pesticides at all? If we can effectively kill ants and roaches by applying pesticide gel in certain hidden areas why do we HAVE to spray it and breath it? Why can’t they spray offices during non-business hours? Everyone knows pesticides are highly toxic and why there is so little precaution? Why wouldn’t government BAN pesticides based on caution unitl it’s proven that they DO NOT cause birth defects? How many sick babies does the government need to move into action?

Posted by loretta mcdonald on 07/01/2011 at 07:42 AM

Hello
I was very pleased to read this article by Rachel Thomas!

I have a granddaughter born with birth defects and although
we can’t prove that it was caused by the use of pesticides
that were sprayed indoors at the office where my daughter was working, it seems likely. It would be a great step forward
in prevention, if notices could be posted inside as a precaution
for pregnant women.

I find your website very informative. Education
certainly helps all of us to make better choices. Thank you for being there.
Loretta

Posted by Joseph Karanja on 06/30/2011 at 12:30 PM

It is very sad to hear that such a big number of American children are having birth defects. The government would save millions of dollars if we can prevent birth defects. We should provide full health care insurance to all pregnant women and require them to have prenatal care, by doing so, doctors can be able to detect anything that can go wrong and possibly prevent children from being born with defects.
My big question is, what id the government doing to prevent birth defects?

Posted by Maeve on 06/29/2011 at 06:57 AM

This makes me sick. I happily have a seemingly perfectly healthy son, however I know of so many girls about my age who have had early and more disturbingly late term miscarriages, severely deformed babies who had to be terminated and I have always wondered what sort of environmental factors could have played a part. There is not a doubt in my mind that this is the kind of thing that is happening to people all around me. Breaks my heart. Nothing is sacred.

Posted by Ira @ Chicago and Suburb on 06/27/2011 at 08:56 AM

This is really alarming. I don’t have a child yet but information such as this should be disseminated to women for awareness. I hope the government can do something about this as well.

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