Dear colleagues,
Last weekend I attended a fantastic conference on breast milk
contamination, which was held at the New York Academy of Medicine.
The conference, called "Chemical Contaminants in Breast Milk: Impact
on Children's Health," was co-sponsored by Mt. Sinai Hospital's
Center for Children's Health and the Environment and the March of
Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. The presentations ranged in topic
from worldwide pattern's of infant exposure to pharmokinetics to
possible health effects and included a lot of new data by top
researchers, including Walter Rogan, Elaine Faustman, and Peter
Scheidt.
I learned a lot. For example, Swedish breast milk monitoring shows an
exponential rise over the past three decades in concentrations of
brominated flame retardants in mother's milk. (These behave very
similarly in the body to PCBs.) We don't test systematically for
these chemicals in the U.S., but new data from California shows that
San Francisco Bay Area mothers have residues of flame retardant in
their milk that exceeds the Swedish levels by several fold. (This
was research done by Kim Hooper.) Very worrisome. Secondly, a
long-term longitudinal study of environmental influences on child
health is being launched by the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development; this study will include the investigation of
possible health problems created by the presence of toxic chemicals
in breast milk. (headed up by Peter Scheidt).
If you want to learn more about this conference--or read the
abstracts--please do not email me. Instead, contact the conference
organizer Lauri Boni: [log in to unmask]
I was very honored to be asked at this conference to give a reading
from my just released book, Having Faith, which deals in a large part
with chemical contamination of breast milk as well as with prenatal
toxic threats. Should you wish more information about this book or
my upcoming book tour schedule (Washington, D.C., Connecticut, New
Hampshire, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Portland,
Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Toronto), please email me privately.
My 8-week-old nursing son will be serving as my audio-visual aid
during these tour appearances (hopefully more video than audio!). I
certainly hope my work can be useful to lactation consultants and
that we can find a language to talk about the issue of breast milk
contamination that does not send women back to the bottle but instead
makes clear that we need to get these contaminants out of breast
milk--which necessitates getting them out of the larger environment
with which women's breasts enjoy an exquisite communion.
Warmly, Sandra
--
--
Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors
110 Rice Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
[log in to unmask]
www.steingraber.com
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