| RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER April 14, 2006 Ag-Mart ties drug to birth defects: Grower suspects thalidomide use By Kristin Collins, Staff Writer
Now, a company spokesman says he has another theory: thalidomide. One of the Ag-Mart workers had a child with no arms or legs. Another had a child without visible sexual organs, who was also missing a nose and an ear. A third had a child with a jaw deformity. All were born between December 2004 and February 2005. "The birth defects suffered by these three kids read off like a checklist of thalidomide," said company spokesman Leo Bottary, who works for a private public relations firm. Bottary said he has no proof that the women took thalidomide. Ag-Mart, a Florida company that grows grape tomatoes and sells them under the brand name Santa Sweets, has been under scrutiny since last spring, when Florida papers published stories about the three women's deformed children. The company farms about 1,100 acres in southeastern North Carolina. Last fall, the North Carolina and Florida agriculture departments cited the company for hundreds of violations of state pesticide laws. They said the company failed to train workers who handled pesticides and illegally exposed field hands, including the three pregnant women, to toxic chemicals on dozens of occasions. Ag-Mart has since stopped using five chemicals linked to birth defects, company officials say. The company is negotiating payment of the fines in both states. Francisca Herrera, the mother of a boy with no arms or legs, filed suit against Ag-Mart in February, saying pesticides caused her son's deformity. North Carolina health officials are studying whether the birth defects can be linked to pesticide exposure. Their report is expected in the next week or so. A Florida county did a similar study last fall and concluded that it could not prove a link. Lawyer Andrew Yaffa, who represents the three women, said all three women deny taking any type of drugs during pregnancy. "These people don't even know what thalidomide is," Yaffa said. Ag-Mart's "own records show that they were exposed to these pesticides. And we're going to go with the theory that they took thalidomide?" The three women are all Mexicans who, at the time of their pregnancies, were traveling between Florida and North Carolina picking tomatoes for Ag-Mart. The women have told state officials in Florida and North Carolina that they took no medications other than prenatal vitamins, said Ann Chelminski, an epidemiologist with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Chelminski is leading North Carolina's study of the birth defects. "I can't imagine, even if it is available in Mexican pharmacies, that it's promoted for use in pregnant women," Chelminski said.
Uses and effects Trent Stephens, an anatomy and embryology professor at Idaho State University, has written a book on the history of thalidomide. He said the most common deformity caused by the drug is a missing bone in the forearm, along with a missing thumb. The drug causes defects only when a mother takes it about the one-month mark in her pregnancy. Stephens said that thalidomide babies were occasionally born missing arms and legs, but that was a rare deformity. He said he has seen cases of babies missing ears, but never noses. He said he also doesn't know of any thalidomide babies with deformed jaws. Stephens said that, in countries where the drug is used, it is still causing birth defects.
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