The public health agency of France has decided to launch a national investigation to investigate a series of cases of babies born without a hand, without an arm or without a forearm, a malformation that is recorded in eighteen children born with these characteristics in the east of the country between 2000 and 2014.
The alarm is triggered
Last month they began talking in the media about these cases and after the announcement of an association of Remera, a region of Rhone-Alpes, alarms went off and the Government had to go out to clarify it. There have been births of babies with the absence of one of their upper limbs, without another notable deformity associated, chromosomal abnormalities or risk behaviors of their parents, such as drug or alcohol intake.
The malformation is not genetic, since agenesis or defective development affects only one limb and cases are concentrated in a specific region, which leads us to think that the causes can be environmental and that the problem may become more widespread than previously believed.
The public health agency was aware of seven reported cases, to which 11 suspicious cases are added in the department of Aín (a department in eastern France) between 2000 and 2014.
Pesticides, medications, food ...?
Some environmentalists suspect that pesticides could be to blame for these malformations, but it could also be something that pregnant women ate or breathed. "We don't want to rule out any clues," says the Agency director.
A previous study carried out by the health authorities on these anomalies in babies was not closed with any conclusive results, although the cases were restricted within a radius of 17 kilometers from the town of Druillat.
They could be due to "certain food products, drugs, recreational substances, alcohol, tobacco and also warn about environmental toxins, substances that can have an effect on pregnant women and cause defects in babies' bodies," the report said. But no common exposure has been identified.
In addition to the cases recorded in eastern France, other groups of babies with malformations have been observed in the west, in the department of Loire-Atlantique, between 2007 and 2008, and in Brittany, between 2011 and 2013, so the global figure across the country would be around thirty babies born with agenesis till the date.
Hopefully the causes of these malformations are known and can be prevented in the future. The results of the investigation will be available "more or less in three months," authorities said.
