Posted on 02/09/2006 11:03:01 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
HARLINGEN - Tortillas made with contaminated corn may have caused a rash of newborns with missing or rudimentary brains in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1990s, new data suggest.
According to the February issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers now have human studies linking a toxin in corn mold called fumonisin with babies' neural tube defects.
Scientists have been searching more than a decade for answers to the surge of anencephalic babies - babies born without brains or with underdeveloped brains - in the Rio Grande Valley from 1990-92.
There were six such cases in six weeks in Cameron County alone.
Residents and lawyers blamed pollution, and General Motors and other U.S.-owned factories paid $17 million without admitting wrongdoing to settle a lawsuit accusing their border factories of poisoning the air.
But no chemical links to the disease were ever proven, and Texas health officials began suspecting the high concentration of fumonisin in the corn harvest just before the outbreak. Some Texas horses that consumed the corn died from brain disease.
The study detailed in the journal found that pregnant women who ate 300 to 400 tortillas per month during the first trimester had twice the risk of giving birth to babies with the defects as women who ate less than 100 tortillas.
Blood samples indicated that the higher the level of fumonisin, the greater the risk of neural tube defects.
Tortillas are an inexpensive dietary staple along the Texas-Mexico border, and studies say the average young woman eats 110 per month.
"I don't know that we can ever go back and definitely say that it was fumonisin," said Lucina Suarez, director of epidemiology and disease surveillance for the Texas Department of State Health Services. But given this and other research, she said, "It certainly looks that way."
David Miller of Carleton University in Canada, one of the world's experts on the toxin, said there was still no direct human evidence that the toxin caused the birth defects.
He said more study was needed because the mold can still taint the corn supply and so many people's diets are largely made up of corn tortillas.
"We need to know the answer to this question," he said.
Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to discuss the report.
"There seems to be some connection between tortilla consumption and neural tube defects," said Ron Riley, a fumonisin expert from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said he was waiting for more evidence before blaming tortillas. "With regard to fumonisin, the jury is out."
BTTT
Texas tortilla ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Does GM get their money back?
From my notes here:
http://www.breederville.com/auction/forumtopic.php?topic=9&boardid=1
It was bad corn that caused the Diamond Pet Food to be tainted.
My thoughts exactly.
These companies ought to get their money back, along with an apology.
110 per month.. even on average that is too many....
This is the same fungus that contaminated the dog food that was recently recalled. Is this a normal corn fungus or one from GMO corn? Can you ask your epidemiologist friend what his/her take on it is? I'd really appreciate it.
400 tortillas a month? was the corn raise in pools of human feces?
I like the food but I restrict it to 1 time per month at a restaurant.
needs further explanation otherwise those not familiar with the subject thinks that this is just gross. : )
when I was a kid, these mexican girls in the neighborhood would just heat tortillas on the natural gas stove and put some butter on it....not in a pan, but right on the burner.
Born without brains. Does that automatically make them liberals?
That's got to be 10 corn tortillas a day. Who knows how many more flour ones they ate.
Just out of curiosity, what did Mama Kennedy feed young Ted?
Just plain old everyday corn. There has been some investigation of using genetic modification to make corn resistant to this "ear mold" or to detoxify the mold itself, but that hasn't happened yet.
Mold is strange stuff. My dog died after eating something moldy in my yard. Then mold can be Blue Cheese Yum!
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