Newhouse urges decision to help prevent birth defects

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., has joined other congressional leaders to urge the Food and Drug Administration to speed up its decision on a food additive that could help prevent birth defects in the Hispanic community.

Not getting enough folic acid before and during the early stages of pregnancy is known to increase the risk of babies born with neural tube defects, including anencephaly. The rate of anencephaly in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties is as much as five times the national rate, although the cause of the cluster of cases remains under investigation.

Folic acid is added to many flour, pasta, bread and cereal products. But it is not added to corn masa, a staple of the traditional Hispanic diet.

The letter, signed by 42 members of Congress, calls on the FDA to move forward with a decision on whether folic acid may be voluntarily added to corn masa flour after a citizen’s petition was filed in 2012. Since fortification of products made with wheat flour in 1996, the number of babies born with anencephaly or other neural tube defects in the United States has dropped by a third.

“We believe it is critical that childbearing women in the Hispanic American community and their families have the same access to this proven intervention for preventing devastating birth defects as all other American families,” the letter said.

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Newhouse urges decision to help prevent birth defects."