• 40,000 babies born each year in the United States have a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD.
• 100 Montana babies a year are born with an alcohol-related birth defect.
• FASD is more common than spina bifida, Down syndrome and muscular dystrophy combined.
• Fetal alcohol syndrome, or FAS, is the most severe and least common FASD.
• About 10 percent of babies with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder have full-blown FAS.
• Brain damage caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol is irreversible.
• The United States spends more than $5 billion a year on FAS. There is no good accounting of how much is spent on the other alcohol-related birth defects in the spectrum.
• FASD is the only birth defect that is 100 percent preventable.
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