Study Links Landfills To Increased Birth Defect Risk

Date: January 24, 2002

Source: News Room

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 have said, though they admitted they are not sure why. Researchers in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicated it could be due to hazardous chemicals from the landfill or other factors, and called for further research to explain her findings. The researchers 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 1.8 miles of a landfill had a higher chance of having a child with a chromosomal defect than couples living further away. The 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 andcleft palate, in children whose mothers lived near a hazardous-waste landfill.

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