Study Hints Bad Corn Behind Birth Defects

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Study Hints Bad Corn Behind Birth Defects

The Associated Press

Wednesday, February 8, 2006; 6:22 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020801973.html

HARLINGEN, Texas -- New data suggests tortillas made with

contaminated corn may have caused a rash of newborns with missing or

damaged brains in the Rio Grande Valley. The defects happened in

births during the early 1990's.

Details are in the February issue of the journal Environmental

Health Perspectives.

Researchers say they now have human studies linking a toxin in corn

mold -- called fumonisin -- with neural tube defects in babies.

Scientists have been searching more than a decade for answers to the

surge of anencephalic babies. There were six such cases in six weeks

in Cameron County alone.

But no chemical links to the disease were ever proven.

Texas health officials began suspecting a high concentration of the

toxin in the corn harvest just before the outbreak.

Tortillas are an inexpensive dietary staple along the Texas-Mexico

border.