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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