Study: Breast feeding still best despite environmental chemicals in human milk (Penn State Live)

University Park, Pa. -- The presence of environmental chemicals in human milk does not necessarily indicate health risks for infants, according to an international panel led by Cheston M. Berlin, Jr., M.D., professor of pediatrics and professor of pharmacology, and Judy S. LaKind, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor of pediatrics at Penn State Children's Hospital. Few, if any, adverse effects have been documented as being associated with consumption of human milk containing background levels of environmental chemicals, and none have been clinically or epidemiologically demonstrated.

The Second Workshop on Human Milk Surveillance and Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals in the United States gathered a panel of experts (representing academia, industry, nonprofit organizations and the federal government) in September 2004 at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pa. The Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health published workshop findings this month (September 2005, volume 68, number 20).

"We strongly emphasize that the mere presence of an environmental chemical in human milk does not indicate that a health risk exists for breast-fed infants," Berlin said. "All information gathered to date supports the positive health value of breast-feeding for infants."

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