Statement of the Public Affairs Committee of the Teratology Society on the fetal alcohol syndrome.

Abstract

Since the initial observations over 25 years ago thatalcohol (ethanol) is a human teratogen (Jones andSmith, ’73; Jones et al., ’73), concerns regarding theprenatal effects of alcohol as a significant public healthproblem have been raised throughout the world. Mucheffort has gone into the delineation of a physical andneurobehavioral phenotype, numerous studies have fo-cused on the birth prevalence of those phenotypes invarious populations, and countless experiments havedocumented the prenatal effects of alcohol in a varietyof animal species. Investigations into the risks of drink-ing small and moderate amounts of alcohol duringpregnancy have been undertaken, education and pre-vention campaigns have been implemented, and pro-grams to benefit affected children have been estab-lished.Although there are numerous gaps in knowledgewhen considering the full spectrum of effects of pre-natal exposure to alcohol, several unresolved prob-lems relating to the diagnosis and prevention of themost severe end of the spectrum, fetal alcohol syn-drome (FAS), are of particular importance. The fol-lowing five points describe these issues and the Pub-lic Affairs Committee’s recommendations in responseto each.