Here's me letter to the AAFP:

Dear AAFP folks:

I am a Lactnet member and co-author of "Milk, Money & Madness: the culture and
politics of breastfeeding."  I was both saddend and angry to learn that your web
page is sponsored by a company that sells infant formula.

The financial coziness between the medical profession and the infant formula
industry is alarming at best, destructive at worst.  So persuasive is the
practice of doctors accepting "gifts" from the pharmaceutical companies, that a
1991 study published in Pediatrics found that the pharmaceutical industry spends
$6,000 - $8,000 in promotion per doctor per year.  Expenditures for these
special events increased 14-fold between 1975 and 1988.

Doctors assure patients that these gifts do not influence them, but a 1994 study
shows otherwise.  Drs. Chren and Ladefeld examined the interactions with drug
companies of 40 "case" physicians who had recommended specific drugs be added to
an institution's list of approved drugs, and compared them with 80 "control"
physicians.  The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.  The authors found that by giving physicians money, the companies
are successful in influencing doctors to recommend their products.

It is incongruous that a group dedicated to promoting family health has such
connections with companies who only benefit when they convince doctors and
mothers that breastfeeding is not important, inconvenient, or too difficult.
Having a web page is a wonderful way of spreading your message and reaching
individuals, but having a web page sponsored by a company selling infant formula
spreads the message that your aren't sufficiently in control of your finances or
your medical priorities.

I hope you will reconsider your web page sponsorship.

Sincerely,


Dia L. Michels

Dia L. Michels                                  202-547-3598
P.O. Box 15348                                  202-546-2356-fax
Washington, DC  20003-0348-                     [log in to unmask]