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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1989)
STAY HEALTHY SERIES FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME (FAS) THE PREVENTABLE BIRTH DEFECT Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was first recognized as a major birth defect in 1973 in Seattle, .Washington. Two doctors, both birth defects specialists at the University of Washington, recognized that many children who were . . mentally retarded, growth deficient, and had similar facial appearance were born to women who abused alcohol during their pregnancy, r, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a birth defect. It is: .; ."I .. ' . .'.... ::.'.: i- ' : ' . 1. Probably the SECOND MOST COMMON birth defect . . .. , .... ,,r.:. .. ., .... 2. Probably the NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF MEN: TAL RETARDATION with at known etiology . 3. FAS is. the NUMBER ONE MOST PREVENT?, ;., ABLE birth defect . . . . , ' "' . ,iA''; ,.. : f . :'...)!.!;!. One out of 750 babies in.thp, United States, has classical FAS, which shows itself in, both physical and mental . ;, , developmental delay.,..,.; , p!h u ; i . , Mental retardation, is. the most devastating aspect of u . FAS. Poor brain development, is indicated by a small head circumference because the brain is a stimulant for skull growth and FAS children have smaller brains than normal children. Eyes are an offshoot of the brain during fetal development and in FAS children the eye. slits arc smaller than normaLVV'.V:''-; alcohol heavily late b pregnancy only, may cause the " 1 dumpers of hazardous wastes, were specifically exdudci mental deficits of FAS but not the physical deformities. from last decade's Environmental Protection Agency s Alcohol consumption late in pregnancy may also cause Superfund inventory of abandoned hazardous waste the newborn to go through alcohol withdrawal. The classical Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has been seen with as little as two ounces of absolute per day. This ,. equals approximately 3 or 4 beers or 2 glasses of wine or 2 mixed drinks. "Binge" drinking or heavy drinking . ounce in awhile is equally as serious as drinking small amounts of alcohol every day. The higher the blood alcohol concentration in the mother, the greater the risk of damage to the unborn child. . All of the available information shows that alcohol damage is done while the baby is in the mothers' womb.' Women who even THINK they MAY get pregnant should be aware of the dangers of drinking alcohol. The best advice is to not drink alcohol at all, especially , (. during pregnancy. ' "' . ... Husbands and potential fathers need to be aware of . , their social responsibility in preventing FAS. Although the man plays no biological role in causing FAS, men ' do have a social role. Often, if the man in the house is' ; drinking alcohot, the woman will drink too. Therefore! ' the man should quit drinking while the woman is ' ' ' , pregnant, .,v.f.., i:v ' ""-v."',- Although Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is probably the "t second most common birth defect and probably the . number one cause of mental retardation. with a known . etiology, it is: . " THE NUMBER ONE MOST PREVENTABLE ,' BIRTH DEFECT!!! As the Surgeon General warned in 1981 "WOMAN WHO ARE PREGNANT (OR CONSIDERING sites. In 1986, when Congress came to its senses and recog nized that something was amiss, it asked the EPA to determine whether any of these locations posed particu lar dangers. The agency responded with nonchalance. First it provided Congress with an old Tribal study of a mere 25 of the 304 reservations. Then it left the decisio whether to conduct more rigorous studies to each of its 10 regional directors - only three of whom felt it was necessary to undertake surveys. The other regional directors remained disinclined to launch studies of thci own even after each of the three surveys turned up serious health problems. Sierra Club activist Julie Andersen characterizes the current state of affairs succinctly when she charges thai the EPA is practicing "environmental apartheid by affording one race fewer protections than the rest of th population.". - . A number of recent court cases have made it clear th; the reservations deserve the same legal protection afforded the rest of the country. Those cases also recognized that, to correct current problems, the tribes need significant assistance from the EPA. Even assuming the best of intentions on the part of tl EPA, however, solutions will not come easily. For one thing, each of the 304 tribes is an autonomous govern mental unit, with status similar to the states. The bureaucratic complexity is staggering. A second impedie'nt is that most tribes are simply nol prepared to deal with the technologies of pollution control, hazardous waste management and water qual . Other problems have been . ; i: 'damage to the'unborn predicament in whii such as hyperactivity, tremors or shaking, weak sucking abilities, poor attention span, poor eye to hand coordi nation, and often times FAS children lack s fear of strangers and act giddy and & Ule.drunk all the time. IQ's of FAS children average around 68. .The normal childs IQ is 100!, '-'jt 'h ; ?:' v '. Typical growth deficiency Qf FAS children is of pre natal onset and after they are born they cannot catch up. On the growth charts, FAS children are usually below the third percentile in height, weight, and head circum- ference.. V-'''' ' ' ' FAS children have physical abnormalities also. Char acteristic facial features of. these children are usually not completely developed. This is due to the slow growth of fetal tissue caused by the mothers' .alcohol consumption. Bone and joint abnormalities are common characteris- tics in FAS children. Poor pre-birth joint and bone development b the hands causes limited movement of fingers and elbows.' Bone and jobt deformities can ' ,' occur throughout the body. Internal deformities also can occur such as heart ' murmurs caused by heart defects, hernias of the dia phragm or grob, and digestive problems. Alcohol readily crosses the placental barrier and the ,: babys' blood alcohol level reaches that of the mother, ' however, due to its small size and underdeveloped ' system, the baby can't expel the alcohol poison from its system as fast as the mother!': In other words, the ' : ' alcohol remains in the babys' system almost twice as ' long as the mothers'. Energy needed for the babys' 1 ' ' brain and body cell and tissue growth is instead used to get rid of the alcohol poison. :; f; ! Alcohol exposure during the first three months of';'-' ' ' pregnancy is the most critical for physical deformities. ; , -This is the time when many women do not yet realize that they are pregnant. The entire nine months is V critical for the brain and central nervous system devel opmcnt as well as growth,1 Thus a . woman who drinks STAY HEALTHY PRESENTATION ' ' ' fl PREVENTING FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME 2:00 P.M. ; '' ''' '' AUGUST 10; 1989 GRAND RONDE TRIBAL OFFICE ( EPA'S ENVIRONMENTAL "APARTHEID" . By Michael Zimmerman '' : ' "' ' ; ' An Indian reservation brings to mind for many people hand-woven rugs and intricately crafted jewelry, while more socially aware Individuals might think of squalor, alcoholism and unconscionably high unemployment ' : rates. The Sierra Club, however, envisions toxic waste -and grave environmental problems. ; ? . . - As Marjane Ambler of tie Sierra Club recently pointed out, the environmental movement of the 1960s com- pletely ignored Indian lands. When Congress passed ; such land-mark environmental legislation as the Clean ; Air Aft, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water , Act and the Solid Waste Disposal Act, no provisions ' : were made to include the nation's 304 reservations. As a result, appalling environmental conditions are the '' 'norm.'":' ' ,;' ''; ' -' ..'' Is it disheartening to consider some of the problems . highlighted by the Sierra Club; the water on the Pine Ridge Reservation b South Dakota is virtually undrink able because of a terribly foul odorwhile on the ! ' , ' Chchalis Reservation in Washington state wastes from a poorly designed, overflowbg septic system ooze onto a.' . playground. The list goes on, with serious environ- r ' mental problems occurrbg on every reservation yet ; 'examined.''';:' .V ''.'.:',' " ' " Additionally, tribal lands, long favorite spots for illegal the states found themselves during the '60s. Not surprisingly, the tribes are doing what the states did; they are applying to the EPA for funds to develop and staff environmental departments. ' - . The EPA, with its typical shortsighted vision, routbe turns down such requests, preferring bstead to spend severely limited funds on projects designed to correct specific instances of pollution rather than on buildbg the appropriate infrastructure necessary to address ongoing, long-term problems. The reservations, now the same mailing lists as the states, are actually awash . a sea of EPA paper work without, in most cases, the personnel trained to make sense of the information. Although the funding decisions made by the EPA ar certainly suspect, it is absolutely clear that there is noi nearly enough money to go around. Even though t Congress has finally recognized the problem and has encouraged EPA to work more closely with tribal ' leaders, it has not seen fit to increase appropriations 1 this purpose. ' . With unemployment on many reservations in excess ' , 50 percent, and some as high as 73 percent, the tribes themselves are going to be hard-pressed to find the , resources to devote to pollution abatement. In the meantime, the water is foul, sewage is often poorly treated, and toxic wastes abound on the rcserv tions, while people are unnecessarily sick as a direct consequence. .' Reprinted with the permission of Michael Zimmerrm . a biology professor and associate dean of the College Arts and Sciences at Oberlin College in Ohio. Courtesy of the Oregonian
