Sharon,
I agree that we all will have to make our own decisions about how to deal
with this issue. I think you have been articulate and thoughtful in your
presentation about how you feel in regard to this issue. But I don't believe that
you have my position correct. You state, "trying to make the point that formula
has more environmental contaminants than breastmilk is a lost cause and
decreases our credibility with the scientific types whose help we should be trying
to enlist. The studies have been done, formula and cow's milk have been
tested and their levels of contaminants are many times lower than those found in
breastmilk."
Please send me the studies you are talking about (this goes for anyone on
this list who has those studies--not studies funded by the infant formula or
dairy industry) because I haven't seen them! The only thing I seem to be hearing
or reading is all the PBDE's in breastmilk and statements that formula has
none. Haven't seen the studies on infant formula. So please send them to me
because I would dearly love to read them.
Cheston Berlin, MD, was quoted on webmd.com with the following statements. I
have heard him speak at Conferences and I would consider him an expert on
toxins in breastmilk and a strong breastfeeding advocate. He made an interesting
comment about infant formula. I am intrigued that he was willing to mention
infant formula. I hope that we won't consider his response, a knee-jerk
response.
http://mywebmd.com/content/Article/74/89190.htm?printing=true
""I regret that this is front-page news because it's really frightened
everyone," says Cheston Berlin, MD, professor of pediatrics and pharmacology at
Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania and a recognized expert on chemicals found
in breast milk. "I've just had two mothers tell me that if they knew about
this before, they never would have breastfed. That's certainly not the message
that I want to get out."
Berlin says that despite these findings, breastfeeding is still the preferred
method for nourishing infants and should be the "enthusiastic" choice for
mothers capable of doing it.
"Of course, there is concern for PBDEs, just as there's concern over the 500
different compounds in tobacco smoke and thousands of other chemicals in the
environment," he tells WebMD. "But I don't know of any documented problems with
bromated flame retardants in terms of exposure to an infant. And what I find
interesting is that what is missing from these discussions is the fact that
nobody has measured these PBDEs in infant formula, or what they may do during
pregnancy."
Cheston Berlin is on the IOM (Institute of Medicine) Committee that is
studying the safety of the addition of ingredients new to infant formula. I feel
quite pleased that he is there. But I am afraid that many of the other
committee members have ties to the infant formula industry, biotechnology, or both.
The committee members have changed since I wrote the IOM last year. The
Chairman of the committee is still Richard J. Deckelbaum, MD,and he has been an
invited lecturer for Nestle, received grant funding from the National Dairy
Association and received a $500,000 grant from Bristol Myers(Mead Johnson). Some
of the other members have received funding from various infant formula
companies, some have major funding (one person close to $3,000,000 from the NICHD
(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development--the US Government
agency that believes in the possibility that a formula can be made better than
human milk). One person has received grants from a biotech company for his work
with a key gene that resists diabetes.
The safety of infant formula is based on our faith that the industry will do
its studies correctly and report any hazards or problems to the FDA.
Consumers assume that major testing is done and that the FDA has monitored this before
these products have been put on the market. Not so. Everyone tells me that
infant formula has no toxins in it. Ok--send me the independent studies that
show levels of toxins...or are we taking the word of the infant formula
industry...just like the FDA takes the word of the infant formula industry.
You know what burns me up? Who identified GMO's(genetically modified
organisms) in infant formula? The FDA? The infant formula industry?
Nope...Greenpeace...The infant formula industry denied it until the evidence was
indisputable. Whose interests are we serving, when we stay silent?
Am I saying that breastmilk has no toxins in it? No, we live in a chemical
world and some of us can escape alot of the contamination by changes in diet
and location. But I don't believe that infant formula has no toxins in it. I
have seen some studies in which water was very contaminated by these toxins.
Water is very much a part of infant formula feeding. Maybe that is why Nestle
is selling specialized water? The only trouble is that the containers in which
water is stored and infant formula is stored are plastic--so leaching of
PCDE's must occur.
The decision to speak out about infant formula and toxins is certainly
dependent on what you believe to be true, where you work, and how comfortable you
are in public presentations-media or otherwise. The absence of data in regard
to infant formula is troubling and silence about this isn't in my genetic
make-up:)
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC
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