Report to recommend steps to reduce spinal birth defects

Folic acid fortification: A branch of the Food Safety Authority is compiling a report that will recommend the best way to tackle…

Folic acid fortification: A branch of the Food Safety Authority is compiling a report that will recommend the best way to tackle the nation's relatively high rate of birth defects that affect spinal cord development.

The report of the National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification will be presented to the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, in May or June, said Jane Ryder, committee spokeswoman.

The committee is steps ahead of the UK's Food Standards Agency, which has proposed discussing whether to make fortifying flour with folic acid mandatory, the same stage Ireland's committee was in last year between March 21st and June 24th.

Neural tube defects account for more foetal deaths during the late stages of pregnancies of Irish women than any other birth defect, according to committee reports.

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Currently, between one and 1.5 of every 1,000 births in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare are affected by neural tube defects. The report, which has been worked on since June 24th, 2005, will make one of three recommendations to try to lower the rate of these defects:

1. Flour millers and bakers should voluntarily add folic acid to bread, which would then be labelled as having been fortified; 2. Fortification of some bread-making flour and all other flour should become mandatory; or 3. The current practice of voluntary folic acid fortification should be continued, combined with a campaign advising women who may become pregnant to take folic acid.

Almost half of all Irish pregnancies are unplanned, which means those women are unlikely to take folic acid, according to the Food Safety Authority. Folic acid, one of the B vitamins, is found mostly in green plants, fresh fruit and yeast. Whole wheat flour loses folic acid when it is refined to white flour.

Health professionals encourage women to take folic acid before and during pregnancy, because folic acid helps a baby's neural tube develop correctly. The neural tube becomes the brain and spinal cord in babies.

If the neural tube does not develop properly, it can cause spina bifida or anencephaly.

Spina bifida is when the spine does not close during the first month of pregnancy. Anencephaly is a fatal condition in which the upper end of the neural tube does not close. When this happens, the brain is either incomplete or has not developed at all.

"Folic acid is proven to reduce the risk of birth defects," Ms Ryder said.