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HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) - Contaminated corn may have caused an increase in babies born with rare birth defects in the Rio Grande Valley in the early 1990s, according to a new study.
Scientists have been searching more than a decade for the cause of a surge in babies in the region with neural tube defects, abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord that arise in the first weeks of pregnancy.
In one south Texas county, there were six cases in six weeks of babies born with rudimentary or missing brains. Overall, a high rate of neural tube defects was found among almost all border counties.
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