The incidents concern the last 15 years
An investigation is under way across France into the case of babies born without arms - a forearm or forearm, said this morning Dr. François Bourdieu, director general of the French public health service.
The results of this survey "for the whole of France" are expected "in about three months", he answered a question asked by RTL.
The investigation focuses primarily on the geographical area of En where between 2000 and 2014 eleven additional suspected cases of children born with upper extremity dysplasia were identified. These amount to 18 suspicious cases over a period of 15 years in this area.
"We started from the apartment of En, we will finish next month the Rhine-Alpes region and we will cover the whole territory", clarified Bourdieu. "We are not hiding anything from you," he assured.
Two other groups of babies born with upper extremity malformations were found in the Ligue 2007 (three between 2008 and 2011) and in Brittany (four between 2013 and XNUMX).
The causes can be genetic, natural or due to toxic substances (diet, environment, or medication, as in the case of thalidomide, against nausea, which led to the birth of thousands of children without hands between 1957 and 1962).
According to some environmentalists, pesticides may be responsible for these malformations, although there is no scientific evidence for this.