Health Report Weighs Against NAFTA In spite of pre-NAFTA promises, birth defects along the southern border have increased. Some blame a deterioration of the post-NAFTA environment. EXCLUSIVE TO THE SPOTLIGHT BY JAMES P. TUCKER JR. January 29, 1996 The incidence of neural tube birth defects has not improved along the border of Texas and Mexico -- as promised -- since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, according to a new study. "I've seen the babes born with birth defects; the NAFTA package gives us the ability to assure that [those problems] will be addressed," said Lloyd Bentsen, then treasury secretary, in November of 1993. But the new study, conducted by Public Citizen in Washington in collaboration with the Red Mexicana de Accion Frente Al Libre Comercio in Mexico City, found that incidents of birth defects may actually be increasing. "Cameron County (Texas), the location of the pre-NAFTA anencephaly cluster, reported 15 cases in 1994, up 33 percent from 1993 when 11 cases were reported," said the study entitled *NAFTA's* *Broken* *Promises:* *the* *Border* *Betrayed*. Anencephaly is one of a category of neural tube birth defects that includes spina bifida. It prevents a full-term baby from forming a complete brain and/or skull. "In early 1995, a new post-NAFTA anencephaly cluster was identified in Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico," the report said. "In all of 1992, only two cases were reported in the Texas county in which Eagle Pass is located. In 1993, four cases were reported. In December, 1994 through February, 1995, three cases were reported per month." The causes of anencephaly are unknown, but scientists suspect such factors as air and water pollution and dietary deficiencies due to poverty, conditions which NAFTA supporters argued, during congressional hearings and debates, would be addressed by the trade accord. "The promise of improved public health and a cleaner environment relied on three things: a decrease in the concentration of [industry pollution], wealthier citizens and state and local governments and strong NAFTA institutions to improve the enforcement of environmental laws," Public Citizen said in a statement accompanying the report. "NAFTA has intensified severe problems of water and air pollution, hazardous waste dumping and increased the incidence of certain diseases and birth defects in the border region," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. >From 1986 through 1991, Cameron County recorded 68 cases of severe neural tube defects, including spina bifida, for a rate of 18.9 per 10,000 births, compared to an average national rate of 6.2 per 10,000 births, according to the study. "Moreover, the rate of neural tube birth defects has been declining in many parts of the world," the report said. "In the United States, rates have declined considerably in the past 20 years, from about 20 per 10,000 births in the late 1960s to about eight per 10,000 births in the late 1980s." There is evidence from both U.S. and Mexican public health records that the rate of neural tube birth defects, such as anencephaly, have been increasing on both sides of the border prior to NAFTA, particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the study found. "Rates of anencephaly in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, Tamaulpias increased from three per 10,000 births in 1987 to 15 per 10,000 births in 1992," the report said. "In Cameron County, the location of Matamoros' sister city of Brownsville, Texas, the number of anencephaly cases increased from 8.1 per 10,000 live births in 1986 to 20.6 per 10,000 live births in 1991." A 1995 epidemiological study "found an interesting correlation" between the level of industrial activity and the neural tube birth defect rate, the report said. The unpublished study was conducted by physicians at the University of Texas and the University of Indiana, among others. The study found "a strong correlation between the anencephaly rate in Cameron County increasing and decreasing as the level of industrial activity in the nearby Matamoros maquiladoras [industrial] zone increased and decreased," the report said. "Meanwhile, the anencephaly rate in two counties with similar population demographics, but located farther away from the Matamoros maquiladora zone-- Hidalgo and Nueces counties-- did not show such a correlation," the report said. The SPOTLIGHT Newspaper Liberty Lobby, Inc. 300 Independence Avenue SE Washington, DC 20003
