Recreational drugs and “gender-bending” chemicals could partly be to blame for a rise in birth defects over the past five years, a medical charity said yesterday.
According to the Birth Defects Foundation, 45,000 babies each year, or one in 16, are born with an abnormality.
Half of those were serious conditions such as spina bifida, Downs syndrome, missing limbs and blindness, the charity said.
The total is six times higher than the Government’s statistics suggest because official figures exclude less serious defects such as birthmarks.
The charity is particularly concerned about the rise of three types of defects: cleft lip or palate, abnormality of the abdominal wall and abnormalities of boys’ genitals.
According to Government figures, the incidence of cleft lip or palate had risen from 5.9 cases per 10,000 births in 1995 to 9.2 cases in 1999.
Hypospadias, an abnormality of the genitals that affects boys, has increased from 7.5 to 8.5 cases.  Gastroschisis, a weakness in the abdominal wall that leaves a baby with its intestines protruding at birth, has gone up from 1.3 to 1.9 cases.  The condition is five times more common in teenage mothers than other ages. The reason for the apparent increase in defects is unclear.  The charity said genetic factors were still the most important cause of defects, although chemicals in the diet that mimic the effects of oestrogen and recreational drugs could play a part.