For those of you who are interested in environmental health. Monique Beaudoin Northeastern Ont. Community Animator/Animatrice regionale du nord-est Ont. Healthy Communities Coalition/Coalition des Communautes en sante de l'Ontario http://www.healthycommunities.on.ca Thu Jan 16, 2003 01:00 AM Breastfeeding is still best for your baby, says author Research does show contaminants in breast milk But `lifelong benefits' outweigh the alternative of formula DONNA JEAN MACKINNON STAFF REPORTER Pregnancy for Sandra Steingraber brought an acute awareness of our polluted atmosphere and the harm it can cause a developing fetus. On. Sept. 25, 1998, Steingraber had a daughter, Faith, and also the makings of a book Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood. (Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, $39.50). As a professor of ecology at Cornell University's Centre for the Environment, in New York state, Steingraber was already tuned into environmental issues and when she applied this expertise to her expectant body, she came up with many startling facts. One is that mother's milk isn't all it's cracked up to be. Breast milk is the most contaminated of all human food, according to Steingraber, who will speak about her research at the Women's Health Matters forum tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, south building. "It carries concentrations of organochlorine pollutants that are 10 to 20 times higher than in cow's milk," she says. DDT-style pesticides used in agriculture are the worst offenders, and stay in breastfed humans most of their lives. Research also shows breastfed babies have a weaker immune system than others, she says. "But I don't think a bottle (formula) is the answer," Steingraber says. "The breast is the lesser of two evils. Yes, there's less immunity, but other lifelong benefits" (the mother-child bond, for instance). She adds if she didn't believe "breast is best," she would not have nursed her daughter for three years. "Women's bodies are the starting point for all of us," Steingraber says. "But the problem is contaminants that flow into our bodies often stay with us all our lives." Nancy Bradshaw, education co-ordinator at the Environmental Health Clinic at Women's College Hospital, agrees with Steingraber. "Women are the first environment for the developing fetus and anything they have been exposed to has a tendency to be downloaded to a baby," says Bradshaw, who will be at the forum's Sunnybrook and Women's College Environmental Health Clinic booth tomorrow and Saturday. She'll demonstrate with a mini house how to make your home more environmentally friendly. Bradshaw also observes that some 85 per cent of patients who visit her clinic with environmental sensitivities are female. One contributing factor is the fact women have higher levels (than men) of fat as opposed to muscle, and toxins are stored in fat. Bradshaw also suggests because women do most of the cleaning, they are the ones inhaling excess fumes from toxic cleaning products. At the forum, Steingraber, who is now nursing her second child, intends to circulate a bottle of her own breast milk to illustrate, graphically, how susceptible it is to ingestion. "If I've just eaten spinach, for example, it will be greener than usual," Steingraber says. She'll also talk about the role of the placenta. It is supposed to filter out bacteria but research shows toxic chemicals can "cross the placenta without restriction" placing a fetus at risk in some cases. Living near a hazardous waste site is perilous as solvents such as kerosene, acetone, and benzene are all chemicals that can "cross the placenta," she says. There is also evidence nicotine, industrial pollutants called PCBs, heavy metals, dioxins, car exhaust and mercury may all interfere with the function of the protective placenta and result in birth defects. The evils of mercury first came to scientific attention in the 1950s when a Japanese factory town, where mercury was a by-product of manufacturing, reported a spate of babies born with defects including cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, small heads, deformed teeth and impaired central nervous systems. It turned out all the mothers ate fish from the local bay full of the mercury waste. Fast forward to 2000, when an American study revealed that each year in the U.S. some 60,000 children are born at risk for neurodevelopmental problems owing to prenatal exposure to mercury, due mainly to mothers eating large amounts of seafood during pregnancy. Steingraber also mentions a disturbing study of a Minnesota farming community that concluded children conceived in the spring, when pesticide use is the highest, were significantly more likely to have birth defects than those conceived at other times. For her book, Steingraber also consulted the American Environmental Protection Agency, an initiative that keeps a Toxins Release Inventory. On it, she found listed 47 different chemicals classified or suspected to be "fetal toxicants." "Chemical manufacturing is the single largest source of these emissions," Steingraber says. And if all that's not enough to fret about, flushing your toilet and running your dishwasher are also hazardous to your health due to by-products of chlorination. Steingraber explains as soon as you flush, contaminants leave the water and enter the air. Although health professionals cannot pin down exactly what will affect a pregnancy, Bradshaw believes it is better to be safe than sorry. "There are simple things to be done if you are pregnant, like avoiding paint and using organic pesticides and environmentally friendly cleaning products," she says. On a practical level, Ann Phillips, environmental health promoter and researcher at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, worked on producing a brochure dealing with contaminants in our environment. Hidden Exposures, Reproduction and Pregnancy explains the dangers of pesticides, lead, paints, solvents and cleaning products pose to a developing fetus and what to do about them. In older houses in Toronto, for example, there is the issue of lead paint, lead residue in backyard soil and lead piping. "A lot of things that seem commonplace have the potential to be toxic," Phillips says. She adds that Steingraber's book is "a must read" for all health-conscious women who are pregnant or planning a family. In her book, Steingraber issues a call to arms to mothers of the world to protect their breast milk from chemical contaminants. "There is no substitute for mother's milk," she says. "Mothers and feminists have to make this issue an international priority." To date, Sweden has paid attention and the Swedish minister of the environment has called for the European Union to ban all chemicals that build up in human tissues - particularly in breast milk. Copyright 1996-2003. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved source url: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035776628764&call_pageid=968867505381&col=9690488720 38 Send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] to unsubscribe See: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html to alter your subscription