From Environmental News Service:
HERSHEY, Pennsylvania, November 11, 2002 (ENS) - An international panel of 30
experts met at the Penn State College of Medicine last week to develop a plan
for a nationwide effort to discover what, if any, environmental chemicals
transfer from mothers to their babies through human milk.
The meeting was part of an effort to determine which chemicals may pose risks
to breastfeeding newborns. The effort is detailed in the November issue of
the "Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health," released this week and
devoted to the "Technical Workshop on Human Milk Surveillance and Research
for Environmental Chemicals in the United States."
"The workshop on environmental chemicals in breast milk was designed to
gather data to support the safety of breastfeeding for women in the United
States and Canada," said Dr. Cheston Berlin, a Penn State professor of
pediatrics and professor of pharmacology, and the host and co-director of the
workshop.
"The symposium focused on methods for obtaining human milk, detecting the
presence of environmental chemicals in those samples and interpreting and
communicating the information found," Berlin added.
Although the panel supports the scientific and public health value of studies
on environmental chemicals - such as mercury, lead or polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) - in human milk, Berlin and all of the panel experts are
quick to point out that women should continue to breastfeed, as that is the
best nutrition for newborns and infants.
"We strongly emphasize that the mere presence of an environmental chemical in
human milk does not indicate that a health risk exists for breastfed
infants," Berlin said. "The accumulated data overwhelmingly supports the
positive health value of breastfeeding infants."
Panel member Dr. Lawrence Gartner, chair of the executive committee of the
Section on Breastfeeding of the American Academy of Pediatrics, agreed. "In
fact, to date, only acute massive intakes of contaminants by breastfeeding
mothers have been associated with infant disease," he said.
While the benefits of breastfeeding to mother and child are well recognized
and publicized, there have been claims made about the risk of environmental
chemicals like PCBs and heavy metals passing to babies through human milk.
However, there is very little data available that connects environmental
chemicals to adverse effects in breastfeeding babies.
Gartner said many more systematic, large scale studies of human milk using
the best epidemiologic, chemical and physical methods in different areas of
this country and throughout the world are needed.
"Human milk feeding is of such critical importance to infant, child and even
adult health that every effort must be made to assure its safety and purity,"
Gartner said. "Only with this knowledge will we be able to give accurate
guidance to breastfeeding mothers and, more importantly, make efforts to
eliminate chemical contaminants from our environment."
The next step is to secure funding for pilot studies to assess the
feasibility of a large scale project.
"Ultimately, the goal is to respond to questions of concern, and get the
facts about the presence or absence of environmental chemicals in human
milk," Berlin concluded.
* * *http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-11-09.asp#anchor4


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