In response to Melissa Kirsch's question on pesticides, the following is
LLLI's press release on contaminants in human milk:

Breastfeeding Remains Best Choice in a Polluted World




SCHAUMBURG, IL (April 1996). Human milk remains the best option for
feeding human infants, even as attention is focused on the many harmful
substances
that may possibly find their way into a mother's body, according to La
Leche League International, the world's foremost authority on
breastfeeding.

In reviewing investigations of contaminants in mother's milk collected
by the La Leche League International Center for Breastfeeding
Information, the research
shows consistently that even in a polluted world, breastfeeding offers
advantages which outweigh the risk of ingesting possible contaminants.
Indeed, the benefits of breastfeeding may prove to be essential to
compensate for and outweigh the risks of toxic effects from the
environment. The focus of scientific concerns should be directed toward
removing such chemicals from our environment, not casting doubts about
the only unprocessed source of perfect nutrition for infants--human
milk.

La Leche League International is concerned that speculation by the
uninformed may cause mothers to discontinue breastfeeding. Human milk is
a living, changing
fluid which adapts to the needs of the developing infant. There is no
way human milk can be duplicated. Also, a discussion of this topic is
incomplete without
pointing out the well-documented nutritional inadequacies and
detrimental health consequences of infant formula, which may be
contaminated both as products of
the same environment and through processing.

The Center for Breastfeeding Information maintains the world's largest
collection of studies on breastfeeding and human milk. La Leche League
International fulfills
its mission of offering information and support to women who wish to
breastfeed by holding monthly meetings, offering telephone counseling,
through educational
opportunities and by publishing books and pamphlets on breastfeeding.
LLLI reaches over 100,000 women in 60 countries every month.

Contact: Trisha Noack or Mary Lofton
(708) 519-7730