Dear Lactnetters, One interesting fact is that the longer a mother nurses, the lower the concentration of environmental contaminants in her breast tissue. The chilling reality is that the mother's levels decrease because she has passed on much of the contaminent to her nursing children. And once again, it is tempting for non-lactivists and cautious people in general to be concerned about the high levels of dioxin and other contaminents in mothers milk, the truth remains that breastfed individuals have a lower risk of cancer and disease than those who do not get this milk. Many of the pesticides that find their way into our breast tissue have estrogenic effects. Long-term breastfeeeding reduces both circulating natural estrogen and estrogen-like (xenoestrogens) chemicals in our milk. Both these factors probably play a role in decreasing breast cancer risk. I do not have the scientific expertise and wealth of background experience that Kathy D. has. Sandara Steingraber, Ph.D. serves on the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer administered by the U.S. DHHS, has taught bio at Columbia in Chicago, and has held fellowships at Univ. of Illinois, Radcliffe, and Northeastern. Her doctorate is in biology. She does write with poetic license. -Debi Page Ferrarello, RN, IBCLC (MS Community Health Education next month---PHEW!) Abington, PA *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html