Infant morbidity and mortality in a region of ecological disaster.

Infant morbidity and mortality in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region (USIR) are indices of ecological disaster. In the most polluted region of such towns as Bytom, Chorzów and Zabrze, the infant mortality rate is very high and increasing. Indices of infant morbidity were higher in Katowice district than in the rest of Poland. Low birth weight (below 2,500 g) depends on the degree of pollution and influences the infant mortality rate. Most parents of children who died in the first year of life have been resident for at least 15 years. In Zabrze in recent years the percentage of congenital defects as the main cause of infant mortality is increasing.