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Communication on environmental risks and breastfeeding infants

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Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Breastfeeding, depending on how the media present, is at once something sexy and emotionally. Sometimes, they sing the praises of the well-documented benefits of breastfeeding. However, on the subject of toxic to the environment that contains milk, newspapers and television often exaggerate the degree of danger.The babies are likely to be poisoned by the milk," Researchers are finding deadly toxins in breast milk 'are titles featured currents on the subject. The media reports rarely put emphasis on the fact that they are not mothers who poison their babies, but the chemical companies and industrial processes recognizable. They are rarely mentioned, these studies demonstrating that the levels of toxins found in breast milk are falling .    The media reports have a direct impact on policies and on breastfeeding. In an article in the new data on the risks of breastfeeding and the link between dioxin and cancer, it might be appropriate to reconsider our position with regard to encouraging the breastfeeding. The Bangladesh has an infant mortality rate of 69.68 per 1000 live births any decline in breastfeeding strongly push this figure to rise. Reports indicate the presence of toxins in the milk of Inuit women in Canada have sown fear and despair in some women. A mother has decided to stop breastfeeding her child in the hope of protecting her newborn, after several weeks to consume bottles with a mixture of water and Coffee Mate, the child had to be hospitalized .    The media rarely talk about the hazards of the milk preparations for infants, which are marketed as the best alternative that is the milk. More clinical medical research demonstrate that there is cause for concern, in particular, to give but one example, the dangers of nitrates contained in the water used to reconstitute the formula Milky . Faced with the commercial interests that are advantaged by the suspicion cast on the value of breastfeeding, it is essential that are disseminated accurate accounts of the risks and benefits of all forms of infant feeding.   To determine the real meaning of the evidence increasingly numerous and often contradictory about breastfeeding and environmental toxins and in order to know what messages should be sent to women in connection with such evidence, I reviewed books medical and social sciences, as well as discussion papers on the topic. According to research scientists, first of all, everyone, and not just women, in itself bear the burden of toxic chemicals. All babies, and not just those who are breastfed, are exposed before and after birth. Breast milk is often used by medical researchers to measure human exposure to environmental toxins, not because he is more toxic than other substances such as urine or blood, but because the matter fat milk is more easily obtained, and cheaper, for testing and because fat-soluble pollutants are likely to be found in the highest concentrations in milk than in the blood or urine .    Some of the most comprehensive studies of toxic contaminants contained in breast milk were conducted in the Netherlands, whose population has been exposed to the highest concentration of industrial pollution there has been in Europe . Rogan's work and his colleagues in North Carolina represent a second set of comprehensive studies . The PCBs, dioxins, pesticides, phthalates and heavy metals were found in samples of milk from some women. The long-term effects of contamination are not yet known, but the data suggest that no adverse effect on growth and no occurrence of disease in the first year can be attributed to the presence of these chemicals in human milk, with the exception of extreme cases of contamination such as industrial accidental spills. One of the texts that is the most authoritative on the subject, Chemical Compounds in Human Milk, presents the following conclusion.Almost all the national and international committees have so far concluded the available data indicate that - advantages of breastfeeding outweigh the potential risks that may be provided by contaminants present in human milk to normal levels .    How accurate data on the risks and infant feeding could be transmitted to the media and breastfeeding women? By placing the issue in a broader environmental context. The principles on which the following might be guidelines for coalitions advocates of breast-feeding, health advocates and environmentalists who want to work together to disseminate accurate and clear messages to the public:    * Recognize what is known about the contaminants contained in the milk.      * Emphasize that exposure before birth contributes to the body burden of all infants, not just those who are breastfed .      * Identify the source of pollution (chemical industry), rather than the source of evidence breast milk .      * Emphasize the risks associated with artificial substitutes breast milk and the risk not to breastfeed .      * Focus attention on alternatives to toxic chemicals rather than on alternatives to breast milk .    Women have the right to know that the milk they produce is anything there may be more pure. Only with the reduction of environmental pollution that this right can become reality.

Last Updated ( Monday, 30 June 2008 )

 

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