French officials looking at malformation cases in Ain province

Oct. 31 (UPI) -- France's national public health agency said it's investigating more cases of newborn babies who are born without or only partial upper extremities.

In France's Ain region, Sante publique France said it's identified 11 cases in which the children are born with the deformities, in addition to seven already documented between 2000 and 2014 by the Remera malformation registry.

Officials said investigations are ongoing but are complex as the cases occurred several years ago.

The Remera registry covers the Rhone-Alps region, which includes Ain, near France's border with Switzerland, 260 miles southeast of Paris.

Sante publique France said it's trying to determine how many of the 11 suspected cases correspond, without doubt, to agenesis of the upper extremities. The cases involve babies born without arms of fingers.

Preliminary investigations about causes of the malformations have not identified any cause, Le Monde reported. Earlier this month, the newspaper published anonymous commentary by three biostatisticians that criticized France's past handling of the agenesis cases.

Le Monde highlighted on an Oct. 15 story that Remere, which suspects environmental pollution, considered the number of cases about fifty times over what could normally be expected.

Ain is also known as "Plastics Vallee" and boasts the highest concentration of plastic companies in Europe, which include 400 companies and 12,000 employees, according to a regional site promoting investment in the area by Auvergne Rhone Alpes Enterprises.