News Coverage
Breast milk best, despite toxins
Flame retardant found in mothers' milk
Published September 27, 2003
A toxic chemical used to make furniture, foam and electronics fire resistant is turning up in high amounts in the breast milk of U.S. women.
Two studies, one released last week, found that 100 percent of the women tested were contaminated with polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a type of flame retardant. Their levels were the highest in the world and 10 to 20 times higher than those in Europe.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization, from November to June tested the milk of 20 women across the nation. It found levels ranging from 9.5 to 1,078 parts per billion.
As alarming as that may sound, the Environmental Working Group isn`t advocating that mothers stop nursing.
"The most important thing for women to take away from this is that breast feeding is still the best option." said Jon Corsiglia, press secretary for the environmental group. "There are still a lot of benefits of breast feeding that outweigh the risk of the chemicals found in the breast milk."
No studies have yet been done on what a safe level for humans would be, nor have there been any real studies to determine how the chemicals are entering humans, Corsiglia said.
In mice and rats, several studies have shown that the chemical may cause cognitive and behavior changes during development and higher cancer rates.
Linda Birnbaum, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's experimental toxicology lab, calls the new study "another wake-up call."
Birnbaum and Arnold Schecter, a professor of environmental sciences, last month published a University of Texas-Houston study that found levels in breast milk ranging from 5 to 418 parts per billion in 47 American women. Breast milk is tested because it's the least invasive way to test fat, where the chemical, known as PBDE, is stored.
The Environmental Working Group is calling for more studies and a ban on the chemical, which has been banned in Europe after studies there about five years ago detected levels - much lower than those found in U.S. women - in breast milk, Corsiglia said.
Angie Strother-Akhtar, 33, now counts herself among those who want more study on the effect of PBDEs. She was one of the mothers who participated in the study after visiting the Environmental Working Group`s Web site. At the time, she wanted to learn more about how she could boost her baby's immune system so she wouldn`t suffer from the bad allergies Strother-Akhtar does.
The Gainesville mother was shocked at how high her levels of PBDEs were - 178 parts per billion.
"Mine were the fifth-highest in the group," she said. "I wanted to know if there was a connection between those with high numbers - between their lifestyle, their location, their diet, their age or their health. Puzzling enough, there was no common connection. We couldn`t find anything that really stood out."
Seven months ago, Strother- Akhtar gave birth to a healthy girl.
"She's so healthy and so ahead developmentally," she said. "She hasn't had a single ear infection. She was crawling at seven months and sitting up at four months. I actually think that breast feeding is the perfect food."
Elizabeth Weise of USA Today contributed to this report.