Birth Defect Research for Children, Inc. (BDRC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization that provides parents and expectant parents with information
about birth defects and support services for their children. BDRC has
a parent-matching program that links families who have children with similar
birth defects. BDRC also sponsors the National Birth Defect Registry,
a research project that studies associations between birth defects and
exposures to radiation, medication, alcohol, smoking, chemicals, pesticides,
lead, mercury, dioxin and other environmental toxins.
BDRC operates from offices in Orlando, Florida with a staff and
community volunteers under the guidance of a Board of Directors
and a Scientific Advisory Board. Each year, BDRC responds to thousands
of birth defect information requests from all over the world. BDRC's
on-line environmental health updates provide thousands of parents,
professionals and organizations with daily news on the latest birth
defect research. BDRC's birth defect information is also available
by phone: (407) 566-8304, 9-5 EST, Mon-Fri or mail by writing to
BDRC, 800 Celebration Ave, Suite 225, Celebration FL 34747
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Betty and Mike Mekdeci's son was born with birth defects
in 1975. The Mekdeci's investigations into the cause of their son's
problems led them to contact the FDA about medications prescribed
for Betty during her pregnancy. Whistleblowers at FDA told the Mekdeci
family to focus on Bendectin, a medication approved to treat nausea
and vomiting during pregnancy. The Mekdeci's efforts led to Bendectin's
removal from the worldwide market in 1982. During their 7 years
of research on Bendectin, the Mekdecis found that many toxic exposures
had not been adequately studied as potential causes of birth defects.
They also discovered that very little information was available
to parents who wanted to find out more about their child's birth
defects. The Mekdecis founded the Association of Birth Defect Children
(now Birth Defect Research for Children) in 1982 to provide birth
defect information to parents and to investigate the causes of birth
defects that could have been prevented.
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