The fortification of food with folic acid would reduce the numbers of babies born with spina bifida, the Master of the Coombe Women's Hospital has claimed.
Speaking at a conference in Trinity College today, Dr Sean Daly urged the Government to take the decision to fortify foods such as flour at source to significantly reduce the numbers of babies born with anencephaly or spina bifida.
About one or two per 1,000 births nationally are born with such neural tube conditions.
Speaking at a meeting of the British Isles Network of Congenital Anomalies Registers, Dr Daly claimed the current practice of Government public-awareness campaigns is not working, in particular in view of the high numbers of unplanned pregnancies.
Dr Daly revealed figures indicate 36 per cent of the 15,000 babies born in the Coombe Hospital in 2001 and 2002 resulted from unplanned pregnancies, and that these babies in particular were more vulnerable to spina bifida.
"Obviously these women were not in a position to take the recommended dosage of folic acid," said. "Added to that, our research showed that those women who had planned pregnancies did not take the requisite dosage," Dr Daly added.
Such a fortification procedure, practiced in the United States and Canada, could also reduce heart disease and stroke levels within the population as a whole, he claimed.