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by S. L. Baker
February 22, 2010
from
NaturalNews Website
Gastroschisis is a birth defect in
which the intestines, and sometimes other organs, develop outside
the fetal abdomen and poke out through an opening in the abdominal
wall.
Long considered a rare occurrence,
gastroschisis has mysteriously been on the rise over the last
three decades. In fact, the incidence of the defect has soared,
increasing two to four times in the last 30 years.
But why?
Researchers think they've found the answer. The culprit behind the
suffering of babies born with this condition appears to be the
agricultural chemical
atrazine. That's the conclusion of
a study just presented at the annual meeting of the Society for
Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM)
held in Chicago.
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle were alerted
to a higher than normal number of cases in of the birth defect in
babies born in eastern Washington.
So they began investigating to see if
the increased incidence was due to some kind of environmental
exposure in that area.
"Our state has about two times the
national average number of cases of gastroschisis," Dr. Sarah
Waller, one of the study's authors, said in a statement to
the media.
"The life expectancy for fetuses
with this diagnosis is better than 90 percent; however it
requires delivery at a tertiary care center with immediate
neonatal intervention which often separates families and can
cause serious financial and emotional stress."
The condition can lead to poor function
of the bowel after delivery and potential long term feeding
problems.
Bottom line: babies with this birth
defect must undergo the trauma of surgery right after birth. And
while most survive, some babies with gastroschisis have
significant damage to the bowel due to direct contact between the
intestine and amniotic fluid or because the intestine was twisted.
These infants may develop a condition known as "short gut" which can
lead to stunted growth and a host of feeding and other problems.
For the new study, Dr. Waller and her research team went to
work investigating all cases of live born infants with
gastroschisis during the period between 1987 and 2006. They
matched birth certificates with databases from the U.S. Geological
Survey that revealed where agricultural spraying took place and what
chemicals were used.
It turns out the chemicals
atrazine,
nitrates, and
2, 4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid
were heavily sprayed in the area.
Of the 805 cases and 3,616 controls in the study, gastroschisis
developed far more frequently among babies whose mothers lived less
than 25 km from the site of high surface water that was specifically
contaminated with one of the chemicals - atrazine. What's more, the
risk of gastroschisis was found to especially rise in babies
of women who conceived in the spring, from March through May.
Those are the months when use of the
chemical is the most prevalent.
The problem
with atrazine
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
atrazine is applied to crops (especially corn, sorghum, and
sugarcane) before and after planting to control broadleaf and grassy
weeds.
It is used most heavily in the
Midwest on agricultural crops but it is also applied to
residential lawns, particularly in Florida and the
Southeast.
Problems linked to atrazine have been in the news previously.
Earlier research showed it causes sexual abnormalities in frogs and
the chemical has also been linked to prostate cancer in workers at
an atrazine manufacturing plant.
So why is it still widely used?
Unfortunately, the EPA has done
little to address the mounting evidence that atrazine is harmful
to humans as well as animals. Last fall the agency announced it
was going to start a new assessment of the chemical in 2010 that
could take months to years to complete.
In the meantime, tons of atrazine will
continue to be sprayed on crops and lawns - and mothers and their
unborn babies will continue to be exposed to this chemical now
linked to a serious and potentially deadly birth defects.
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