http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030923/ts_nm/environment_milk_dc_2
Sep 23, 2003
Toxic Flame Retardant Found in Breast
Milk
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
- Several American mothers nursing
their infants had high levels of potentially toxic flame
retardant chemicals in their breastmilk, a U.S. environmental
group said on Tuesday.
While the study by
the Environmental Working Group was small
and did not show any health effects in the babies, the group
said it showed just how widespread the chemicals are.
The chemicals are bromine-based
fire retardants and are
used in a wide range of products including furniture,
computers, television sets, automobiles, copy machines
and hair dryers to make them less likely to catch fire.
They can build up in the body over years.
"Brominated fire
retardants impair attention, learning,
memory, and behavior in laboratory animals at surprisingly
low levels," the EWG report reads.
"The most sensitive
time for toxic effects is during periods
of rapid brain development."
The EWG, a non-profit
group that has publicized the presence
of many different chemicals in products and the environment,
tested the breast milk of 20 first-time mothers across the
country, including Washington, D.C., Evergreen, Colorado,
and Los Angeles.
"The average level
of bromine-based fire retardants in the
milk of 20 first-time mothers was 75 times the average found
in recent European studies," the report reads.
"Milk from two
study participants contained the highest levels
of fire retardants ever reported in the United States, and
milk from several of the mothers in EWG's study had among
the highest levels of these chemicals yet detected worldwide.
"These results
confirm recently published findings from
University of Texas researchers, as well as other U.S. studies,
that American babies are exposed to far higher amounts of
fire retardants than babies in Europe, where some of these
chemicals have already been banned," the EWG said.
"In the United
States, only California and Maine have acted
to restrict the use of these chemicals."
The group stressed
that women should not stop breastfeeding.
No study links intake of the chemicals from breastmilk with
any problems in children.
Any health effects
probably take place while the children
are still in the womb, the group said.
Albemarle Corp. of
Richmond, Virginia, one of the companies
that makes the flame-retardant chemicals, said it was working
to find out if the chemicals are dangerous.
"As an industry
group and as a company we are working with
just about any and every scientific group that is doing
long-term studies on the safety of these products," spokesman
Michael Whitlow said.
###
See Also:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/mothersmilk/
Study Finds Record High Levels of Toxic Fire Retardants in Breast
Milk from American Mothers
Executive Summary
In the first nationwide
tests for chemical fire retardants
in the breast milk of American women, the Environmental
Working Group (EWG) found unexpectedly high levels of these
little-known neurotoxic chemicals in every participant tested.
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