More than 12,000 babies were born in Israel with major birth defects between 2001 and 2005. About 1,400 of these children died as a result of their birth defects according to figures released Monday by the Health Ministry.

According to a ministry report from the Department of Mother, Child and Adolescent Health, 1.86 percent of all children were born with serious birth defects in 2005.

The ministry said that despite the advances in technology in recent years, which allow the detection of embryos with serious problems during pregnancy, the number of children born with serious problems is still high.

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In recent years there has actually been an increase in the number of babies born with a problem that causes a defect in the heart walls, and those with another birth defect called hypospadias, in which the urethra opens on the undersurface of the penis.

The Health Ministry said the rise in hypospadias has also occurred in other Western countries, though why this happens is still not understood. One explanation is that the birth defect is caused by increased exposure to chemicals affecting hormonal balance, but the exact cause is still the subject of research. The source of these chemicals could be processed foods, industrial materials or other products.

Professor Yona Amitai, the head of the ministry's Department of Mother, Child and Adolescent Health and the author of the report, said that the encouraging news in the figures is the drop in the number of babies suffering from neural tube defects (NTDs), in which the neural tube fails to close properly. Amitai attributes this decrease to the wide use of folic acid by pregnant women.

The report also highlights an increase of between 10 and 20 percent in the number of birth defects in the Arab sector compared to that in the Jewish population.

Certain birth defects are seen to be increasing, said Amitai, because of improvements in testing; defects that were not identified previously are now revealed.

However, the ministry wants the public to take preventative steps by opting for genetic testing and increasing the use of folic acid for women of childbearing age. Amitai said that enriching flour with folic acid is likely to further decrease the occurrence of NTDs among babies, and this should be coordinated with the bakeries and the Industry and Trade Industry.

In terms of major birth defects, Amitai said, the situation in Israel is similar to that in the Western world. But Israel, he said, has a high percentage of women who do not undergo genetic testing due to religious beliefs.