To all,

The issue of contaminants in breastmilk will be ongoing.  Researchers are using breastmilk as a convenient tool for measuring the amounts of environmental pollution because it is easy to obtain and to analyse and because contaminants accumulate in the our fat and are then transferred to our milk.  The purpose of these studies is to track the amount of contamination by various chemicals in our environement and in some studies, try to figure out what the affects might be in the future if the contamination continues at present rates and the levels become much higher.  The hope is that more and more of these chemicals will be banned in more and more countries so that we can begin to de-contaminate our environment.

Some points to remember: (thank you to Dr. Ruth Lawrence and Tom Hale for much of this)
        1.  The greatest amount of harm from contamination occurs in the womb where the fetus is directly receiving continuous doses of these chemicals from the mom who is consuming contaminants and metabolizing fat stores during her pregnancy;  after being born, the breastfeeding baby will then continue to accumlate toxins, but the degree of harm does not seem as evident as what happens prenatally.  There are studies that show that breastfed babies do have higher body loads of various toxins that do formula fed babies.  Formula is contaminated to a small degree, and powdered formula may be contaminated by the water used to prepare it, but the levels are still not comparable to what is found in breastmilk - if you try to make that arguement, you will be shot down by the research.
        2.  In the most recent flame retardant study, the actual amounts of chemicals the baby receives through the milk is EXCEEDINGLY SMALL - and we are not sure how well all of it is absorbed.
        3.  The amount of flame retardant fed to the rats in the study were huge - way beyond what a baby would ever receive and given in a short period of time.  There is no way that that can be extrapolated to prove that breastfed babies receiving very low doses over a long period of time can be harmed in any way by their ingestion of breastmilk.
        4.  Only a few of the women in the most recent study had high levels in their breastmilk - most of the women had very low levels;  however,  our levels are likely to be higher than any in Europe due to the fact the this chemical has been banned in most of those countries.
        5.  As far as I know, there are no studies that prove that babies would be better off on formula than on breastmilk, contaminated or not.  In fact, almost every news story I saw after the flame retardant story was released emphasized the fact that babies should continue to breastfeed.  Unfortunately, many of these stories did not adequately explain what the studies were really about and the proper interpretation of the results.
        6.  There has been a few rare instances where mothers consumed massive amounts of contaminants and their breastmilk was severaly affected.  In most cases, the accumulation slowly occurs over a long period of time. As we all know, there have also been cases where formula has been improperly made, sold to the unsuspecting public and has caused death in some babies.  This is on top of the many other deficiencies present in all formula.  So even if formula does not have the level of contamination found in breastmilk, it is still highly inferior to breastmilk.
        7.  The point that we should be making is that although the levels in milk are not high enough yet to cause anyone to reconsider their decision to allow their baby to breastfeed, if we do not start cleaning up the environment, fifty years from now, that may no longer be true.  We all need to be very vocal in our demands to our politicians that enviromental protection should be at the top of their priority list.  Babies are contaminated before they are even born, let alone through the ingestion of breastmilk.  How can anyone not see how bad this situation is?

There has been a lot of discussion about this subject in the past on Lactnet.  I would recommend that those of you who are new to this issue should search the archives for information on contaminants. Sandra Steingraber and Judy Schreiber have both contributed some very good posts on this subject. LLLI has a released a statement on this subject as have WABA and IPEN, among others. We all need to be conversant on this subject as it will continue to be discussed in the media and by parents who are deciding whether they will be raising breastfeeding children.

PS.  To Diane W. - did I get the language right? Would Nils approve?
Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, ASCP, IBCLC
Newark, NY (near Rochester on Lake Ontario)
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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