I have been thinkign about the issue today. i woudl like to discuss a few things:

> My recent research specifically focuses on a number of
> questions related to lacation:  1) the life history of the breast
> from embryonic development through pregnancy, breastfeeding, weaning,
> and menopause; 2) the presence of chemical contaminants in breast
> tissue and breast milk and their possible relevance to a) breast
> cancer in the mother and b) developmental problems in the nurslings;
> 3) how the presence of breast milk contaminants changes through the
> period of lactation;  4) how the functioning of various constiuents
> of breast milk (e.g. immunoglobulins) may be compromised by the
> presence of chemical contaminants (e.g. immunosuppressive chemicals,
> such as PCBS and dioxins); and 5) how the presence of certain
> contaminants might interfere with milk production (possibly through
> endocrine disruption, e.g. prolactin and oxytocin pathways).

Regarding the last point: I know there has been a research  that showed that women
who had higher dioxin levels, weaned significantly earlier than women with less
dioxins in their breastmilk. The research had controlled for SE factors. The
researcher concluded that the dioxins might cuase problesm with the milk
production.

The research is:
"DDE and Shortened Duration of Lactation in a Northern Mexican Town. Beth.C.
Gladen and Walter J.Rogan. Am J of Public Health, Vol.85, No.4, 1995, p.504-8.
Dr. Rogan's main research focus has been the effect of pollutant chemicals on the
growth and development of children. He has been involved with three major studies.
The first is a cohort study of North Carolina children exposed to background
levels of PCBs and DDT. These children were born between 1978 and 1982, and were
followed through puberty. Although the primary hypothesis of this study was that
PCBs and DDT (as DDE) in breast milk might produce toxicity in nurslings, Rogan
and his co-investigator, Beth Gladen (Statistics Branch, NIEHS), showed that
transplacental but not lactational exposure to PCBs produced small but persistent
delays in motor development detectable from birth to age 2 years.
They also showed that DDE at higher levels was associated with markedly earlier
weaning, replicated that finding in Mexico, and speculated that this might be
because DDE is a weak estrogen. "

I think this conclusion  has been done way too easy and quickly. We know that most
insufficient mulk supply is perceived. Women wean when they think they haven't
enough milk. In most cases this is not true. In cases there is indeed an
insufficient milk supply, only the minority of it is physiological. Most cases
could be resolved with support and good help with bf management.

I think in this case this could be true either. One could however wonder why women
with contaminated more perceive their milk supply to be low . Maybe their babies
are different? I indeed think this is the case. Contaminant exposure in utero has
been associated with irritability in babies, behavioural problems at a later age,
attention problems at a later age, and it is also associated with lower motor and
neurological scores on test in small babies.
In other words, these babies may cry more, causing the perception of low milk
supply in the mothers. And maybe more of these babies have dysfunctional sucking
movements due to their delay in neurological and motoric development, causing very
early wenaing...

I think for now the research shows more support for this theory that the theory of
the hormone-disruption of the toxins causiong real insufficient milk supply. In
the latter case the difference would be not so high, would it be hidden among the
many cases of perceived insufficient milk supply , AND it would come up much
earlier, namely directly after birth.


We should not forget the following: there are lots of data on contaminated
breastmilk, because researching breastmilk is the easiest way to measure the
general exposure of the whole popualtion. One don't need to take blood samples,
just a cup of breastmilk.

One cannot imagine a stronger action message than an image of a baby at the
breast, accompagnied with alarming words "'toxic!"
BUT, it's the in uterine exposure that is much more damaging. The Dutch
reasearchers even found that breastfeeding did counteract the negative effects of
the in uterine exposure.

 The action groups like Greenpeace do use these images, resulting in women wean
their baby, or not even start breastfeeding. We had such a campaign about POP's
lately from Greenpeace, shortly before the conference in Scandinavia. The public
conclusion was it is better to stop breastfeeding. Greeanpeace knows better but
willingly doesn't speak up when someone concludes this from their message.

I held Greenpeace responsible for the weaning of a lot of babies and so for their
less change  of a healthy life.


> --the good news:  the Swedish breast milk monitoring program, which
> is the gold standard and has been operating for 30 years, shows
> significant drops in dioxin and ddt levels since the 1980s.  These
> drops reflect stricter European laws in the use and manufacture of
> these chemicals, incinerator closings, etc.  That is to say,
> political action does work to clean up breast milk.


Indeed, political action helps, but these actions should not focus in
breastfeeding, but on uterine exposure. The action that are performed now are
resulting in weaning, and that's not good!!!


off my soapbox.

Annelies

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