Birth Defects

December 26, 2013
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study finds that blood mercury levels of women of childbearing age have dropped 34 percent from surveys conducted over 10 years ago. Many people are exposed to mercury in the form of methylmercury often found in fish and shellfish that live in mercury-contaminated water.  Mercury builds up in people that eat fish containing...
December 30, 2013
A new study shows that fetal deaths in Washington, D.C. increased during 2000-2003 and 2007-2009, when the city’s tap water was highly contaminated with lead. Lead is an extremely toxic heavy metal, long known to the State of California to cause birth defects and reproductive harm.  While the study does not prove that the District’s “lead crisis”...