DURHAM -- Last week, a friend e-mailed us a disturbing new scientific study titled "Younger mothers' breast milk has highest levels of flame retardants." According to researchers at the UNC School of Public Health, nearly three-quarters of 300 North Carolina mothers studied had some amount of toxic flame-retardants, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), in their breast milk.
PBDEs are common flame-retardants used to slow the spread of fires. They are used in household products such as computers, televisions, mattresses and textiles. These chemicals, which have been shown to be toxic to the brain and hormone system (and also have safer, nontoxic alternatives), end up in our bodies.
In addition to the load that any child accumulates through his own exposure, finding PBDEs in breast milk means that breast-fed infants will receive an additional dose of this brain toxin. Babies and children are at greater risk from chemicals that affect their developing bodies than are adults, making this all the more alarming.
We both breast-fed our sons, feeling confident that breast milk is always the "best milk" for babies. However, it is maddening to know that along with all the wonderful benefits we were delivering to our babies - antibodies, healthy fats and immune-system boosts - we were also serving up a dose of toxic chemicals.
Pregnant and lactating women are strongly urged to eat a healthful diet, exercise, avoid cigarette smoke, decrease stress and generally adopt habits to ensure that their infants have the best possible prenatal environment. But no one told us to avoid environmental toxins, and even if they did, with these chemicals pervasive in our world, there is very little that we could have done.
How could our country have let this happen?
The problem goes back more than 30 years. In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed the Toxic Substances Control Act. TSCA was intended to protect us from toxic chemicals but has proven to be dangerously ineffective. The law grandfathered in all 60,000 chemicals used in consumer products at the time. The result is that chemicals used in consumer products are virtually unregulated. This is surely a system that takes too many risks with our children's health.
What can we do? We need to update TSCA to ensure that chemicals are proven safe before they end up in consumer products and ultimately our bodies. Congress is expected to take up a bill that does just that, and North Carolina Reps. G.K. Butterfield and Sue Myrick are members of House committees that will be front and center in the process.
We look forward to working with them to ensure that the bill requires manufacturers to provide basic health and safety information on chemicals before they enter the marketplace and that we take immediate action on chemicals like PBDEs, which persist in our bodies and environment.
We will continue to be confident that we made the right choice to breast-feed our children because the multitude of health and emotional benefits outweigh the PBDE risks. But we think all children should be able to derive those benefits without also paying the price of higher PBDE exposure.
We will continue to ensure that mothers and children have a strong voice as the debate to reform TSCA takes shape in Congress. Our elected representatives should do everything they can to get toxic chemicals out of our bodies so that mothers do not have to stop and question whether breastfeeding might harm our children. It is time that we move away from the "chemical of the day" headlines and move toward a system that truly ensures that a mother's milk is free of toxic chemicals.
