Anencephalus, drinking water, geomagnetism and cosmic radiation.

The mortality rates from anencephalus from 1950-1969 in Canadian cities are shown to be strongly correlated with city growth rate and with horizontal geomagnetic flux, which is directly related to the intensity of cosmic radiation. They are also shown to have some association with the magnesium content of drinking water. Prior work with these data which showed associations with magnesium in drinking water, mean income, latitude and longitude was found to be inadequate because it dismissed the observed geographic associations as having little biological meaning, and because the important variables of geomagnetism and city growth rate were overlooked.