I've been following bits in the mainstream news about health problems along the border for a long time, but haven't looked up all the epidemiology studies and such. I know that the toxic soup which may be involved is very difficult to detect and decipher. One cause that should be included in all studies of health/birth defects is degree of poverty/malnutrition. One of the very few specific 'chemical' causes of a specific birth defect which is now well established is that folic acid deficiency increases neural tube defects. General undernutrition as well as specific malnutritions, physical work effort [physiological energy budget], and frequency of pregnancy all clearly affect birth weights. These all have medical/social/economic sequelae for the babies, mothers and others, and are all part of the reason that poverty amounts to murder. Lisa with my biologist once-was-premed hat on From: D Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: E;Public Citizen: NAFTA An Environmental And Health Calamity > /* ---------- "Nafta's environmental problems" ---------- */ > > By C. Gerald Fraser > Earth Times News Service [snip] > Public Citizen says "the incidence of neural tube birth defects has not> improved since NAFTA took effect in 1994, and may actually be increasing." > Neither the cause nor the reason for the abnormalities' location > along the border is known. The rate of anencephaly--a rare birth defect in> which full-term babies are born with incomplete or missing brains and/or> skulls--has declined nationally in the U.S. but increased in Texas. Cameron> County, Tex., in which Brownsville is located, is particularly affected. [snip] > Another health issue is the low birth-weights of border-community babies. > Public Citizen cites a study published in the Journal of Industrial Medicine> in December 1993 that says women working in garment and electronics> maquila plants in Tijuana, Mexico, had babies with lower birth weights> than babies born to women working in service-related industries. [snip]
