Hello everyone.  I'm writing about Cathy Liles post about the woman who will
be exposed to lead when she goes to a firing range for mandatory training
for her job at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan.  I could just call Cathy on
the phone, or hop in the car and be at her house in 15 minutes, but I want
everyone on the list to consider the following.  While all of the
information about the possibility of lead getting into the mother's milk and
harming the baby is very important and useful, no one seems to have picked
up the implications of this situation.

Why should a nursing mother have to wean her child from the breast at 6
months because her employer wants to expose her to lead?  Isn't this a job
safety issue?  The medical research shows conclusively that 6 months of
breastfeeding does not exhaust the nutritional and health benefits to the
baby or the mother.  Where are the mother's rights in this case?  Shouldn't
the employer have to make some accommodation to the fact that she is nursing
an infant?  I think it's ridiculous that her employers (the U.S. government,
essentially) should be able to dictate to her when to wean her baby, and
that she should be made to feel like she has to lie and hide the fact that
she is pumping while at this training.

Doesn't this broader issue bother anyone else?  Am I just too radical,
wanting the world to change to support nursing mothers??

Kathy Dettwyler
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