Does Mother's Milk Transfer Environmental Toxins to Breast-Feeding Babies?
Moldleg333
environment, it is very possible that mycotoxins will also be present
in the breast milk. I also think this is another very sad example of
what has been done to us as a specie and there should be no risks at
all from toxins in breast-feeding. Here we have taken what nature has
designed for us to feed our newborns and now it has been perverted
because of greed, corruption, and ignorance. Now are babies cannot
even eat safely even while in their mothers bodies, not to mention
when they first come out. It is no wonder that One in Seventy now
suffer from Autistic Spectrum Disorder. How about stop toxifying the
world and cleaning up our structures to be safe from mold and other
dangerous toxic environmental factors. Then get the toxic poisons out
of our food, air, and water supplies. How sick is it that we are
actually paying a lot of money to buy foods that are loaded with toxic
chemicals that are poisoning us. Then we are paying a lot of money for
properties that are mold and bacteria infested that landlords are
neglecting or refusing to acknowledge or remediate. We will see if we
can all work together to change this and take back the once clean and
safe planet.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=earth-talks-breast-feeding
Does Mother's Milk Transfer Environmental Toxins to Breast-Feeding
Babies?
Although breast milk tends to attract heavy metals and other
contaminants due to its high-fat and protein content, some recent
research has shown its toxic load to be smaller than that in the air
most city dwellers breathe inside their homes
When we nurse our babies we feed them minuscule amounts of the same
chemicals and volatile organic compounds we are exposed to every day
ourselves -- from paint thinners and wood preservatives to gasoline
byproducts and flame retardants. However, some research shows the
toxic load in breast milk to be smaller than that in the air most city
dwellers breathe inside their homes. Despite breast milk's
vulnerability to chemical contamination, the benefits of breast
feeding - from the nutrition and important enzymes and antibodies it
supplies to the mother/child bonding it provides - far outweigh the
risks.
Dear EarthTalk: I've read that human breast milk contains toxins
from pollution and other causes. How serious is this and what affect
will it have on my baby?
—Skylar S., New York City
Researchers have found that those of us living in developed countries—
men, women and children alike—carry around quite a toxic burden in our
bodies from the constant exposure to various chemicals in our urban,
suburban and even rural environments. If this weren’t alarming enough,
the fact that these chemicals end up in breast milk and are in turn
passed along to newborns is even more troubling.
According to writer Florence Williams, whose groundbreaking 2005
article in the New York Times Magazine opened many women’s eyes to the
environmental health issues with breastfeeding, breast milk tends to
attract heavy metals and other contaminants due to its high-fat and
protein content. “When we nurse our babies, we feed them not only the
fats, sugars and proteins that fire their immune systems, metabolisms
and cerebral synapses,” she reports. “We also feed them, albeit in
minuscule amounts, paint thinners, dry-cleaning fluids, wood
preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline
byproducts, rocket fuel, termite poisons, fungicides and flame
retardants.”
In the wake of such kinds of news reports, four nursing mothers came
together in 2005 to form Make Our Milk Safe (MOMS), a nonprofit
engaging in education, advocacy and corporate campaigns to try to
eliminate toxic chemicals from the environment and in breast milk. The
group educates pregnant women and others about the impacts on children
of exposure to chemicals before, during and after pregnancy, and
promotes safer alternatives to products such as cleaning supplies,
food storage containers and personal care products that contain
offending substances.
“Along with its antibodies, enzymes and general goodness, breast milk
also contains dozens of compounds that have been linked to negative
health effects,” reports MOMS, which lists Bisphenol A (BPA, a plastic
component), PBDEs (used in flame retardants), perchlorate (used in
rocket fuel), perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs, used in floor cleaners
and non-stick pans), phthalates (used in plastics), polyvinyl chloride
(PVC, commonly known as vinyl) and the heavy metals cadmium, lead and
mercury as leading offenders.
Despite these concerns, some recent research has shown the toxic load
in breast milk to be smaller than that in the air most city dwellers
breathe inside their homes. Researchers from Ohio State and Johns
Hopkins universities measured levels of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) in breast milk and in the air inside the homes of three
lactating Baltimore mothers, finding that a nursing infant’s chemical
exposure from airborne pollutants to be between 25 and 135 times
higher than from drinking mother’s milk.
“We ought to focus our efforts on reducing the indoor air sources of
these compounds,” said Johns Hopkins’ Sungroul Kim, the study’s lead
author. He concurs with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) and many other public health experts that, despite
breast milk’s vulnerability to chemical contamination, the benefits of
breast feeding—from the nutrition and important enzymes and antibodies
it supplies to the mother/child bonding it provides—far outweigh the
risks.
CONTACTS: MOMS, www.safemilk.org; Study: Volatile Organic Compounds in
Human Milk, www.pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es062362y; CDC, www.cdc.gov.
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