WEEK 49 Nov 20th to 26th 2000

   NUMBER OF DEFORMITIES INCREASED THREEFOLD

   The number of children born with deformities in the Grenland area in the county of Telemark, Norway, is twice as high compared to the rest of Norway the last ten years a survey from the national medical register is showing. The number is rising all over the country, but in the cities of Skien, Bamble and Porsgrunn the increase is three times higher than the last ten-year period, the local newspaper Telemarksavisen is writing.
   The Grenland area has a lot of heavy industry and polluting factories, as it has had for decades.

   related news: DIOXIN FAR MORE DANGEROUS THAN PREVIOUSLY EXPECTED

   The environmental poison Dioxin, a prominent by-product of industrial production, is far more dangerous than previously assessed, according to American scientists. Dioxin, a so-called environmental estrogen, is changing and disrupting the hormone-balance in organisms. The American research is stating categorically that it is a relation between exposure to Dioxin and several forms of diseases, among them cancer. The Grenland area in question has among the highest concentrations of Dioxin releases to air in Norway.

   related news: ISN'T ALLOWED TO RESEARCH DEFORMITIES

   Lack of funding, 15 million Norwegian Kroner (about 1 million British pounds) for a start, is preventing the Norwegian national bureau of public health (Folkehelsa) from doing research on the connection between industrial releases, and lack of health. The bureau wants to make 100000 pregnant women part of their investigation and to follow them and their children in three years.
   The major spike in the number of deformities in the Grenland area is also almost as bad in other areas with heavy industry, like in Mo I Rana, a small industrial "village" further north.