Sir, – The report on the increase in neural tube defects – anencephaly and spina bifida – makes grim reading ("Folic acid failure is scandal in the making", Health + Family, May 5th). Few congenital conditions are as serious and worse still, as Paul Cullen points out, taking folic acid in very early pregnancy can prevent many cases.
When I was a member of Seanad Éireann, I frequently spoke on the desirability of mandatory fortification of flour or bread. Relying on commercial producers to ensure adequate folic acid is in their products is totally unsatisfactory. Worse still, cheaper brands are least likely to be fortified, as pointed out in the article, and those women and girls most at risk are from lower socioeconomic groups.
I now realise mandatory fortification will not take place here in Ireland until the UK, or maybe the whole EU, does so. But the least the Department of Health can do is run campaigns on the importance of folic acid for women of childbearing years with some sort of regularity. I cannot remember the last one.
The situation is made worse by the dreadful increase in obesity in this country. Young women are often much fatter than their mothers were when they became pregnant and they will require higher doses of folic acid to prevent neural tube defects. These young women should be encouraged to lose weight for many other reasons associated with pregnancy.– Yours, etc,
MARY HENRY,
Dublin 4.