Hi all.  I'm the nurse/manager at the OB/GYN clinic at Harvard
University Health Services.  We see an amazingly diverse ethnic
population here with many problems and concerns.  One lovely patient
we have is a full blood Penobscot Indian from Maine. She is 32 weeks
pregnant.  Baby seems fine from US done.  Her tribe lives on an
island in the Penobscot River about 7 miles from the closest paper
mill.  There are a total of 4 paper mills up river from their island
that discharge 4 million gallons of waste from the plants on a daily
basis.  Her concern is dioxin levels in the water.  They have notices
from the EPA to eat only 2 servings of fish per month from the river.
 She has heard that 50% of any dioxin in her system is excreted
through breast milk and all of the mothers on the reservation have
been encouraged to use ABM.  It is very difficult to get information
from the government or the paper mills concerning this.  We will be
testing her dioxin level at her next appt.  If anyone who has any
information regarding this it would be appreciated.  This also sounds
like a great study for someone to do for a paper!
Thanks to Marge Wilson for hooking me up to Lactnet....You are all
great sources of information.
Sheryl McGinnis RNC