Thank you to everyone who responded to my question a couple of weeks ago
about PBB contamination. A woman had called me saying her daughter had been
told by a college instructor that she should not breastfeed because she had
been contaminated by PBB as a child. In Michigan in the early 70's someone
accidentally mixed fire retardant into cattle feed and whole herds were
contaminated. There was much concern at the time. Some farm families were
highly affected.

LLLI's position is that the known risk of not breastfeeding is greater than
an imagined risk of toxins. I agree with this and many of you suggested where
is the research to refute this.

I tracked down a doctor here at the University of Michigan whose specialty is
pediatrics and toxins. He was quite helpful. People were tracked after the
PBB scare. No ill effects were ever found even in the farm families who got
the heaviest dose. The general public got a very low level contamination. He
agreed that breastfeeding would be best. This young woman who consumed PBB's
as a child had a low dose which is distributed in her fat. She has not added
to it since then and her body has grown making the toxin more diffuse. It
would come out in the milk but it would be an insignificant ammount.

He went on to say that PCB's however have been shown to cause problems. He
recommends that women and children limit their intake of Great Lakes fish.
This has been controversial in Michigan lately because Governor Engler does
not want to publish warnings about fish consumption because he thinks it will
hurt the tourist industry.

PCB's come from pesticides and they are still around. They end up in the
water. The tiny fish eat them. The big fish eat the smaller fish. It
accumulates up the food chain in the fat. It is in breast milk. We can't wish
that away. We know breastfeeding is best (normal), but we need to clean up
the planet too.

Am I ranting? This started out to be a positive posting on why we don't have
to worry about PBB's.

I haven't been too active on Lactnet for awhile. I have recently found a way
to keep up. It's good to be back.

Marilee Woodworth, IBCLC, LLLL, APL, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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