Robert Verkaik (Extracted from "Parents of 30 children sue over birth defects they blame on clean-up of toxic waste dumps" The Independent, 28 November 2005)

"Mothers of 30 children born with webbed hands or webbed feet have won the right to bring a multimillion-pound legal action to try to prove a link between the mismanagement of toxic waste dumps and the birth defects. Expert evidence submitted to the High Court in London supports the mothers' claim that during their pregnancies they were exposed to contamination from the waste sites left over from the clean-up of Northamptonshire's former steel industry."

[Ed: Personally, I doubt whether there's any real connection between webbed feet and steel industry wastes -- though, of course, it is important, and possibly useful, that this should be tested forensically in thorough fashion. Deleterious genes occur repeatedly in every species, including ourselves. Indeed, they are the other side of the coin whereby genes mutate into new alleles which confer benefits to a species. Genetists consider that there are something like 2,000-3,000 deleterious genes in our total stock and are generated at a rate of about one per generation. But the vast majority of deleterious genes are steadily expunged from the repertoire because obviously unfit individuals tend to be excluded from the parnering and subsequent parenting process. Undoubtedly, this ability to exclude harmful mutations will be greatly enhanced in future years as young people have their DNA analaysed before committing themselves to parenthood.]