Breast Milk of Oregon Women Contaminated

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The last sentence particularly caught my attention...read on.

 

 

 

PORTLAND, Ore. - The breast milk of Oregon women is contaminated with

a high level of toxic flame retardants known as PBDEs, researchers say.

 

 

A new analysis by the California

Environmental Protection Agency and the Seattle-based research group

Northwest Environment Watch compared the PBDE levels in the breast

milk of 40 Pacific Northwest mothers with the levels of another toxin

and chemical cousin, PCB.

 

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are used as a flame

retardant while polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are a class of

chemicals used in insulating fluids for electrical equipment before

they were banned in the late 1970s after studies indicated they cause

cancer.

 

The analysis of breast milk samples showed that 30 percent of the

mothers tested in the Northwest study had higher levels of PBDEs than

PCBs.

 

The analysis, released Thursday at the " Dioxin 2005 " international

conference in Toronto, suggests that PBDE contamination may be

surpassing the level of PCB contamination in humans and the environment.

 

" The comparison with PCBs suggests that toxic flame retardants have

emerged as a major environmental health concern, " said Clark

Williams-Derry, research director for Northwest Environment Watch.

 

The breast milk samples from Northwest women were analyzed in the

California EPA's Hazardous Materials Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. It

is one of several studies under way on breast milk contamination.

 

Some of the data from the study was originally released by Northwest

Environment Watch in 2004, but the comparison of contamination levels

was just completed, researchers said.

 

The 40 mothers in the Northwest study are from Oregon, British

Columbia, Montana and Washington state.

 

Overall, they had levels of PBDEs 20 to 40 times higher than levels

found in women from Europe and Japan.