France has started a probe into why babies in some regions of the country have been born with missing or malformed hands or arms after a report about previously unknown incidents sparked a public health scare.

Public Health France reported 11 cases of hand-related defects from 2000 to 2014 in a single region in eastern France in addition to seven cases that were already public there. A total of seven cases between 2007 and 2013 were already public in two regions in western France.

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French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn confirmed her ministry would launch an investigation into the phenomenon on Wednesday.

"I want to know, I think all of France wants to know," Buzyn told BFM TV. "It could be an environmental factor. Maybe it is due to what these women ate, drank or breathed in."

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Public anxiety

French media had reported extensively on the figures, leading to fears that toxins in the local environment in affected regions could be to blame.

An inquiry into birth defects in western France in early October found the rate of abnormalities no higher than in the rest of the country. The countrywide rate is about 150 cases per year.

A full report into all abnormalities is expected before June 2019.

Thousands of babies around the world were born with defects in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Experts eventually blamed thalidomide, a drug used at the time to treat morning sickness.

amp/msh (AFP, Reuters)

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