I, too, abhor the way that toxins in breastmilk are sensationalized to
get attention. I abhor the fact that women become fearful of
breastfeeding their children as a result of this sort of news. However,
this is likely only the first of several new breastmilk biomonitoring
studies to come out in the next few months and years.  Though we
certainly might wish that they would not use breastmilk, it is
inevitable and I think it will also be happening on an international
scale at some point in the near future to track bans of chemicals. I
really believe that we need to turn our energy toward working out a
strategy to deal with these emerging studies.

In some other countries, such as Sweden, breastmilk is monitored on a
regular basis, and does not appear to affect breastfeeding rates. It is
so disturbing, although not surprising, to see the way it is affects
breastfeeding here.

I'm just now revising (in light of the recent press on PBDEs) an
article I wrote on the issue of chemical contaminants in breastmilk
and if there is anyone here who hasn't already been contacted privately
by me but has good information or knows of people I could interview,
please let me know offlist. (It will appear in Mothering).

Thanks,

Christine Gross-Loh, Ph.D., LLL Leader
Cambridge, MA

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