Analysis: Oregon Breast Milk Contaminated (with fire retardant)

AP ^ | 8/26/05

[linkinpunk]

Today: August 26, 2005 at 7:18:28 PDT

Analysis: Oregon Breast Milk Contaminated

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - 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.

[Salvation]

**Overall, they had levels of PBDEs 20 to 40 times higher than levels found in women from Europe and Japan.**

Hmmm.

[Salvation]

Oregon Ping

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.

[Salvation]

You are sooooo right!!

[Cold Heart]

Thanks for an intelligent reply.

[blackie]

I guess I'll stay away from breast milk. *sigh*

[Valpal1]

Bingo, hope the loggers lawyers make this connection and arguement next time they get sued to stop the logging.

[Iconoclast2]

Isn't this stuff used in manufacturing fabrics to federal safety standards? This may not be a NW issue at all.

[Larry Lucido]

Hmm, better start checking breast milk here in Michigan. Line forms to the right!

[wideminded]

As the father of a son who was recently born and breast fed in Oregon, I find this article somewhat more worrying than the other posters on this thread.

[r9etb]

True. The samples were taken in states where there'd been big fires, though -- perhaps there's a pre-existing assumption on the part of the researchers.

[wideminded]

Hmm, better start checking breast milk here in Michigan. Line forms to the right!

You probably already got your dose:

"Despite having been banned, PBB-153 continues to be found in human blood in Michigan. This may be due to a 1973 accident in Michigan in which PBBs (mostly 153) were accidentally mixed with dairy cow feed. This accident caused PBBs to get into the milk supply and be widely distributed and consumed in the state." - link

There was a memorable TV movie about this incident starring Ron Howard as a young farmer who begins wondering about strange illnesses in his cows. In the climactic scene cows were herded into a large pit while farmers surrounded it with rifles.

[drungus]

Simply consider the number of huge forest fires in the NW over the past few years, and the correspondingly huge firefighting efforts. The retardant gets dropped in the mountains and washed into the watersheds, and so of course it gets into human tissues.

The retardants used in wildland firefighting are NOT PDBEs. A typical slurry includes of ammonium phosphate or sulfate.

PDBEs are used in furniture and such. While it might be tempting to blame the envirowhacko stance on forest policy for PDBE in breast milk, there is simply has no factual link.