Toxicologists investigate cases of hand deformities in German babies

Abstract

Embryo toxicologists at the Charite University Hospital in Berlin have been asked to investigate the recent cases of three babies who were born with a deformed hand at the same hospital in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.\n\nThe cases were first reported on 12 September in a Cologne newspaper, which quoted a midwife who said that the cases had caused concern among her midwife colleagues.1\n\nSince then, several previously unreported cases of babies born with deformed hands in other regions have been picked up by German newspapers, triggering alarm among pregnant women and their partners.\n\nThe spate of hand deformities in …