A spill of 180,000 gallons

of deicing fluid into one of Fayette County's main water supplies in January

may pose a risk to unborn babies whose mothers drank the contaminated

water, according to an Emory University pediatric health expert.

At a forum in Peachtree City

Wednesday night, Dr. Howard Frumkin said he "feels a little worried

about the birth defect issue" since unborn babies were exposed to

ethylene glycol in drinking water.

"I think careful scrutiny

during pregnancy is justified," Frumkin said to an audience that

included several pregnant mothers. He suggested pregnant women who drank

the contaminated water should work with their health care providers to

monitor their pregnancies.

Frumkin has calculated the

possible exposure levels to Fayette residents to ethylene glycol, the

most toxic of the chemicals found in the deicing fluid used at Hartsfield

International Airport, which reported the spill in January. But in his

"worst case" figures, the doses ingested by local residents

were about 20 times lower than what caused reproductive problems in mice

and rats during several clinical studies. In those studies, the mice and

rats were exposed to ethylene glycol for longer periods of time than local

residents were after the spill, he added.

The spill into the Flint River

was reported by Hartsfield officials in early January after the fluid

was used to deice planes during a winter storm.

Noting his calculations could

change as more information becomes available, Frumkin said he assumed

the "worst-case scenario" in the calculations.

One factor working in Fayette's

favor was that the exposure likely only lasted for several days, he added.

"But I'm not standing

here saying there was no exposure," Frumkin said.

Any birth defects caused by

the contamination would depend on the fetal age at the time of exposure,

Frumkin said. The highest risk would be unborn children ranging from four

to eight weeks old, he said.

Only one case study of humans

ingesting ethylene glycol has been done, Frumkin explained. In that study,

birth defects were found in children whose mothers were exposed to the

chemical when they worked in an electronics plant in Mexico. Those babies

had misshapen faces, bone abnormalities and neurobehavioral abnormalities,

Frumkin said. But the study didn't include just how much exposure the

mothers had to ethylene glycol, he added.

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