Landfills Linked to Raised Birth Defect Risk

[Guest guest]

LONDON (Reuters) - Living near a landfill can raise the risk of having a

child with birth defects such as Downs Syndrome by as much as 40 percent,

researchers said on Friday -- but they admitted they are not sure why.

Dr. Martine Vrijheid of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

said it could be due to hazardous chemicals from the landfill or other

factors, and called for further research to explain her findings.

 

``Most importantly, it is not known how much, if any, exposure mothers had

to chemicals from the landfills,'' she said.

 

Vrijheid and her colleagues studied 245 cases of children born with

chromosomal defects and 2,412 healthy babies who lived near 23 landfill

sites in five European countries, to determine if the abnormalities could be

linked to where they lived.

 

In a report in The Lancet medical journal, they said people living within

three km (1.8 miles) of a landfill had a higher chance of having a child

with a chromosomal defect than couples living further away.

 

``More study into the chemical causes of chromosomal anomalies and exposure

of residents to landfill sites is needed to interpret our findings,''

Vrijheid said in the Lancet report.

 

Her research followed an earlier study in 1998 which showed a 33 percent

increased risk of birth defects which were not caused by chromosome

disorders, such as spina bifida and cleft palate, in children whose mothers

lived near a hazardous-waste landfill.

 

Metals and toxic chemicals pose the greatest risk from landfill sites, the

environmental group Friends of the Earth has said. Toxic substances can seep

into groundwater, or escape in the air during the transport and tipping of

waste.

 

 

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