15 July 1999 Edition
Mothers pass toxic milk to infants
Breast-feeding mothers are poisoning their infants with carcinogenic chemicals that also affect the immune system and hormonal development.
A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Britain confirmed this week the mounting evidence - that highly toxic chemicals and heavy metals are now at dangerous levels in the food chain.
Chemicals which are used daily at home (such as detergents, disinfectants, perfumes) and in commerce (pesticides, dry-cleaning fluids and coolants) bioaccumulate in food, making their way into the fat tissue of mothers who pass them onto their children via their breast milk.
The WWF report noted that two-month-old babies in Britain are consuming more than 42 times the ``safe'' level of dioxin, along with 350 other toxic substances - such as the pesticide DDT and the range of coolants known as PCBs. A breast-fed infant receives its so-called ``safe'' lifetime limit of dioxin in the first six months of drinking breast milk.
``Many of the contaminants found in breast milk are inherently toxic,'' state the WWF. ``These chemicals may exert effects on the developmental, neurobehavioural, reproductive and immune systems. Several of the contaminants found in breast milk are suspected human carcinogens.''
The report's author, Gwynne Lyons, said the WWF wanted to see the ``phasing out of substances that accumulate in the food chain, regardless of their known toxicity.
``We have to have a much more cautious attitude to substances that build up in body fat, because this is what's passed on to the next generation. It's very worrying. Regulations at the moment do not identify which substances will or will not persist in the environment.''
A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Britain confirmed this week the mounting evidence - that highly toxic chemicals and heavy metals are now at dangerous levels in the food chain.
Chemicals which are used daily at home (such as detergents, disinfectants, perfumes) and in commerce (pesticides, dry-cleaning fluids and coolants) bioaccumulate in food, making their way into the fat tissue of mothers who pass them onto their children via their breast milk.
The WWF report noted that two-month-old babies in Britain are consuming more than 42 times the ``safe'' level of dioxin, along with 350 other toxic substances - such as the pesticide DDT and the range of coolants known as PCBs. A breast-fed infant receives its so-called ``safe'' lifetime limit of dioxin in the first six months of drinking breast milk.
``Many of the contaminants found in breast milk are inherently toxic,'' state the WWF. ``These chemicals may exert effects on the developmental, neurobehavioural, reproductive and immune systems. Several of the contaminants found in breast milk are suspected human carcinogens.''
The report's author, Gwynne Lyons, said the WWF wanted to see the ``phasing out of substances that accumulate in the food chain, regardless of their known toxicity.
``We have to have a much more cautious attitude to substances that build up in body fat, because this is what's passed on to the next generation. It's very worrying. Regulations at the moment do not identify which substances will or will not persist in the environment.''