PLASTICIZERS GO FROM BREAST MILK TO BABIES

14 Jul 2006 - As Environmental Science and Technology reports, infants imbibing breast milk may also be sucking down a high dose of phthalates, the ubiquitous toxic plasticizers that are in many consumer products, from lipstick to vinyl flooring. The new research provides one of the first snapshots of phthalate delivery through breast milk. For 6 months, scientists tracked phthalate levels in the breast milk of Canadian mothers, but the health implications remain unclear and the data show that the amount of the toxic ingested by infants can vary from feeding to feeding.

As Environmental Science and Technology reads, the preliminary results of the long-term study show significant levels of phthalates in breast milk from more than 80 women. Overall, the work is “another piece of evidence that phthalates are being detected in biological samples of many types, from urine to blood", says Gary Adamkiewicz, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health. He adds that the results raise more questions than they answer. “The fact that you’re seeing it in breast milk highlights the fact that you need to understand the effects of a significant dose during that first year of life,” he says. “What are the health effects down the road? What are the health effects for that child? That is the one big question highlighted.”
Read the full story and new research results in Environmental Science and Technology