Asians considering marrying within their own family are being asked to consider the genetic risks because of research that suggests the practice increases the chance of children being born with disabilities.

The highly sensitive issue is being tackled for the first time by community leaders in Bradford, home to one of Britain's biggest Asian communities, where research has found that Asian children are 17.5 times more likely to be born with neuro-degenerative conditions than white children, three times more likely to suffer profound deafness and almost twice as likely to have cerebral palsy. Several studies have established a link between inter-family marriage and such disorders.

The Bangladeshi Porishad community centre in the city's Manningham district, which is undertaking the project, described the issue yesterday as the most serious facing local Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.

Successive health authorities had shied away from the issue because they feared their interference would be branded racist, said Abu Bashir, the centre's president.

Across Bradford, 392 children are registered with serious disabilities, of whom 145 (37 per cent) are of Asian origin, though Asians constitute 28 per cent of the under-18 population. By 2011, it is predicted this may rise to 50 per cent.

Research by Bradford social services shows that almost five out of every thousand Asian children in the city suffer from deafness, compared with just over one in a thousand among the non-Asian community. Nearly six Asian children in a thousand suffer from cerebral palsy, compared with three in a thousand among the rest of the community. Thirty-four Asian children were listed in 1998 as suffering from neurological damage, compared with six in the wider community.

Inter-family marriage is not the only cause, Bradford health advisers stress. Other factors in child disability include poverty, lack of exercise, bad housing and poor diet.

"Blaming inter-marriage can become an easy answer," warned Mike Corrigan, a child health and disability manager in the city.

However, the Institute of Child Health, part of University College London, believes deafness, cerebral palsy and poor eyesight can all be caused by recessive genes passed from parent to child and that the chance of inheriting a genetically determined illness are greater if the parents are blood relatives.

Mr Bashir said marriage was clearly a factor among comparable working-class families. "Marrying within the family does increase the risk but not everybody knows it," he said. "We are not saying don't marry within the family but we do want people to make an informed decision. We do believe there has been an element of racism associated with the issue, stemming from a feeling that inter-family marrying should not go on, and this also explains why it has not been tackled."

Couples will be urged to consider counselling and blood tests to identify gene deficiencies, with the hope of reducing child disability in the city within five years. It is also hoped that local schools will allow Mr Bashir and his two project workers to address Year 11 and sixth form pupils. "The take-up of ante-natal services is poor among our community," said Mr Bashir. "People leave it to fate and say it is God's will or that it's a sort of punishment. Why blame God if you can do something about it?"

Inter-family marriages - legal under English law - have taken place over many generations within some Muslim families and are valued for the cultural strength, social cohesion and support they provide.

Marriages between nieces and distant uncles are permissible in Bangladeshi (though not Pakistani) culture and create a high risk of disorders, according to the Institute of Child Health.

Marrying a first cousin is more common among Pakistani Muslims and a 1994 Policy Studies Institute report suggested that the practice was likely to increase.

The report also found a geographical and class distinction: manual workers were twice as likely to be married to a first or second cousin as skilled workers, while 60 per cent of Pakistanis who had such marriages were based in the conurbations of West Yorkshire - where most Pakistani families moved from the Punjab - and the West Midlands, compared with 33 per cent in the South-east.

Yasmin Hussain, of Leeds University's centre for research and primary care, said wider fluency in English was making ethnic minority communities more open to advice. "Some families still think their children's disabilities are a result of previous misdemeanours but in the last 10 to 20 years those ideas have been eroded," she said.

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Some people are fixated on the fallacy that cousin couples pose an intolerable risk to their offspring. However it is likely that we are all descendants of cousin marriages. Before civil laws banning cousin marriages, it was preferable to marry a cousin in some communities as it is to this day in many countries. The notion “why marry a stranger" is just as prevalent in many countries as the cousin marriage taboo in America today. There is a wide range of opinions on the subject of cousin marriages. This is fuelled by erroneous information, bigotry, and presumptions. Further we have civil laws and religious creeds based on obsolete information.

The facts about cousin marriages are much clearer.

There are no contemporary studies that indicate cousins have children with significantly higher than normal birth defects. Fears of cousins who marry having children with birth defects are indeed exaggerated. Simply marrying within your own race increases the odds of birth defects. Marrying within your own town further increases your chances. Cousin couples have only a slightly higher incidence of birth defects than non-related couples.

Fact: 26 states allow first cousin marriages; Most people can marry their cousin in the US.

Fact: US prohibitions against cousin marriages predate modern genetics. Hmmm.

Fact: In the first quarter of 2000, two delegates in Maryland introduced a bill that would prohibit first cousin marriage. This bill passed in the House of Delegates (82 to 46), however did not make it past the Senate Committee. Please remember Delegates Heller and Barve in the next election. The sponsors of the bill claim that a large ratio of out-of-state couples come to Maryland to get married – perhaps cousin couples. Their bill would have stifled revenues from marriage licenses while imposing ridiculous marriage restrictions.

Fact: No European country prohibits marriage between first cousins. It is also legal throughout Canada and Mexico to marry your cousin. The USA is the only western country with cousin marriage restrictions.

Fact: Children of non-related couples have a 2-3% risk of birth defects, as opposed to first cousins having a 4-6% risk. Genetic counseling is available for those couples that may be at a special risk for birth defects (e.g. You have a defect that runs in your family)

In plain terms first cousins have at a 94 percent + chance of having healthy children. Check the links section for more information on genetic counselors. The National Society of Genetic Counselors estimated the increased risk for first cousins is between 1.7 to 2.8 percent, or about the same a any woman over 40 years of age.

Fact: Second cousins have little, if any increased chance of having children with birth defects, per the book "Clinical Genetics Handbook”– courtesy of the March of Dimes.

Fact: The frequency of cousin marriages in the USA is about 1 in 1,000

Fact: The frequency of cousin marriages in Japan is about 4 in 1,000

Fact: It is estimated that 20 percent of all couples worldwide are first cousins. It is also estimated that 80 percent of all marriages historically have been between first cousins!

Fact: In some cultures, the term cousin and mate are synonymous.

Fact: The range of consanguinity in Saudi Arabia is between 34 to 80+ percent. A study has been done on birth defects resulting from consanguineous marriages in this country. Read about it.

Fact: Albert Einstein married his first cousin. And so did Charles Darwin, who had exceptional children.

Fact: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the longest serving US president in history married his cousin (not a first cousin, however they shared the same last name).

Fact: The first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald married his first cousin.

Fact: Leviticus 18 lists all forbidden sexual relationships. Cousin relationships are not included.

Fact: God commanded many cousins to marry, including Zelophehad's 5 daughters, Eleazar's daughters, Jacob (who married both Rachel and Leah, first cousins), and Isaac and Rebekkah (first cousins once removed). All were ancestors of Jesus Christ.

Fact: Current studies indicate that cousin couples have a lower ratio of miscarriages -- perhaps because body chemistry of cousins is more similar. The verdict is still out.