People around the world began observing the day in 1999. The ninth day of the ninth month of the year represents the nine months of pregnancy a woman should abstain from alcohol.

Prenatal exposure to alcohol can cause birth defects, mental retardation, learning disabilities, attention deficits, and behavior disorders, the city's proclamation states. Yet one in nine pregnant women binge drink in the first three months of pregnancy.

Salt Lake City's prevention efforts include a walk today during which pregnant women and mothers will visit downtown bars and post self-sticking fliers to the inside of stalls in both men and women's bathrooms. The stickers discourage pregnant women from drinking alcohol and include the number of the state's pregnancy risk line.

"The message is 'no alcohol, no time, during pregnancy,'" said Abbie Vianes, coordinator of the Salt Lake City Mayor's Coalition on Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs.

Economists estimate that fetal alcohol syndrome costs U.S. taxpayers $5.4 billion annually in direct and indirect costs. In Utah, the costs for medical treatment, special education services, and home and residential care for mental retardation due to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders is estimated to be $27 million, the proclamation states.

Vianes said new research indicates any amount of drinking any time during pregnancy can impair a fetus' development.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is "life altering," she said, "because it never gets better. And these children can have physical deformities, they can have mental retardation, they can have cognitive impairment - it is a very, very difficult thing."

lrosetta@sltrib.com