1 Aptos, CA 95003
To the Editor.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement on fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the May issue Pediatrics1 makes several errors of omission and, I believe, of naivete. The report cites an incidence figure of 1.9 per 1000 live births and a corresponding annual cost estimate of $320 million from a 1987 report by Abel and Sokol. 2 The report ignores, however, the 1991 reports3 by the same two distinguished authors in which they revised their estimates downward sixfold to 0.3 per 1000, and the cost estimate to $70 million.