Pregnant women and those planning to get pregnant need at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the B vitamin is very important to a woman's health before and during pregnancy. Now, a new study has shown that folic acid deficiency caused birth defects in thousands of babies, prompting researchers in the United Kingdom to recommend that flour be fortified with folic acid.
"The failure of Britain to fortify flour with folic acid has had significant consequences," said the researchers in a press release, adding that folic acid deficiency resulted in 2,000 cases of neural tube defects — or birth defects involving the spine, brain and spinal cord — that could have been avoided, such as anencephaly (when the brain and skull do not develop correctly) and spina bifida (when the spine does not develop correctly).
Seventy-eight countries have established policies requiring that flour be fortified with folic acid. In the U.S., manufacturers have been adding 140 micrograms of folic acid for every 100 grams of cereal grain since 1998. As a result, from 1998 to 2012, the prevalence of neural tube defects has dropped by 23 percent.
The researchers said that if the U.K. adopted the same practice as the U.S., the prevalence of neural tube defects could have fallen by 21 percent from 1998 to 2012. This means there would have been 2,014 fewer cases of neural tube defects in the U.K. within that period: 1,798 fewer cases in England and Wales, 152 fewer cases in Scotland and 64 fewer cases in Northern Ireland. The researchers warn that delaying the folic acid fortification of flour will result in an estimated 150 cases of neural tube defects each year.
"It is a public health failure that Britain has not implemented the fortification of flour with folic acid for the prevention of spina bifida and other [neural tube defects]," said the researchers, adding that this shortcoming has led to "avoidable terminations of pregnancy, stillbirths, neonatal deaths and permanent serious disability in surviving children."
The U.K. Department of Health said it is looking into the matter, according to the BBC.
The study was published online Dec. 17 in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
