I wanted to add some thoughts to the topic about toxins in breastmilk.
I believe that environmentalists who are against breastfeeding because
of the chemicals and toxins in breastmilk, are not fully informed.  They
are looking at a portion of the issue.

What would happen, if women no longer breastfed(everyone bottlefed their
babies)?  We would need a bigger dairy industry which would increase
pollution--nitrate build up from run-offs into our waterways. A bigger
dairy industry means the need for more food for these animals and of
course more drugs for these animals.  The empty tins/containers of abms,
bottles(not recyclable), bottle nipples/ teats and pacifiers will
increase the level of garbage in our land-fills. While this may enrich
abm companies, it will increase the degradation of our planet.

We not only are faced with chemical pollution, we also have nuclear
pollution.  Studies from the Chernobyl accident have shown that breast
milk is safer than infant formula. Those studies are mentioned in
Breastfeeding and Human Lactation 2nd edition(pg.182). Lead
contamination is less in the breastfed infant than the bottlefed
infant.  Boiling water to sterilize concentrates lead.  That is why our
local health department suggests that you bring water to a boil and then
shut the heat off--no longer recommends boiling for 5 minutes. Aluminum
contamination is much much higher in abms(60 times).  There is excess
vitamin D and excess levels of iodine in abms.  The solute load from abm
is high and burdens an infants immature kidneys(also causing an
bottlefed infant to dehydrate faster).

The studies that environmentalists point to need to be looked at
carefully.  How did they define breastfeeding?  Were they looking at
blood work from breastfed infants or just looking at pumped breast milk
samples?  The studies I saw in one environmental book were from the 70's
and the 80's.  How many babies back then were totally breastfed? I have
many questions about those studies.

We can't argue that toxins are not a problem, but the answer isn't using
abms.  What I believe we must do is emphasis the "rest of the story."
Environmentalists who believe that abm use would improve the situation
are only seeing a small part of the total picture.  Valerie W. McClain,
IBCLC

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