Are contaminants in breast milk cause for concern? We live in a polluted world and all human bodies accumulate environmental toxins which enter the food chain due to contamination of atmosphere, water and soil. However while reports often concentrate on breastmilk they overlook the fact that contaminants which are stored in body fat and slowly metabolised form a greater risk to the foetus during pregnancy when his or her fast growing body is most vulnerable.
Breastfeeding has the advantage of helping a baby develop a stronger immune system and helps to minimise any effects of environmental exposure. Breastmilk contains high levels of antioxidants which may help to compensate for any pre-natal exposure to environmental chemicals. Research indicates breastmilk can counteract the neurological effects of contaminants transferred before birth and also any in the milk. Breastmilk cannot be replicated and the “healthy” ingredients added to formula are man-made, not the living substances in breastmilk which can interact with an individual baby and are easily digestible. Even today we don’t have full knowledge of all the constituents and benefits of breastmilk.
What about contaminants in breast milk substitutes? A point which is often overlooked in scares about contaminants in breastmilk is that formula and other foods offered to babies are not free from contaminants with some scientists finding cow’s milk can contain high quantities of medicines administered to the animal.
Formula may contain unintentional contaminants introduced during the manufacturing process; some may contain traces of genetically engineered soya and corn. Soya formulas contain very high levels of plant-derived oestrogens and the beans can use a lot of pesticides and fertilizer when growing.
Water used in processing or preparing foods for a baby may contain residues or substances that may be of concern while bacteria and food borne pathogens have been detected in commercial formulas, which can lead to serious illness in young babies.
The packaging of infant formulas sometimes gives rise to contamination with broken glass and fragments of metal as well as industrial chemicals. Bottles, artificial nipples and other feeding devices may sometimes leach chemicals into food. Parents assume that the production of infant formula is heavily regulated but this is not the case. It can be hard to find out what the basic product is made from or where the ingredients come from.
Although regulations on infant formula are under review, currently they rely on voluntary good manufacturing practices and quality control.In developing countries water is often contaminated, further jeopardising the health of the infants.
Those who can’t afford the artificial baby milk often will dilute the formula, depriving the baby of nutrients and contributing to infant illness and mortality.
Women can reduce the contaminants in their bodies
Finding ways to reduce the level of chemicals in their bodies can offer women a positive way of minimising concerns. La Leche League International’s website offers suggestions on some ways women might do this:
- Avoiding smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol since levels of contaminants have been found to be higher in those who smoke and drink alcoholic beverages
- Considering when purchasing homes and buildings that they may have been treated with pesticides for termites and/or older homes might have lead-based paints
- Looking at diet and taking into consideration how they have been grown. Eating a variety of foods and thoroughly washing and peeling fruits and vegetables can help to eliminate the hazard of pesticide residues on the skin. When available, eating food grown without fertilizer or pesticide application reduces contaminants
- Predator fish such as swordfish and shark or freshwater fish from waters reported as contaminated by local health agencies are best avoided
- Limiting exposure to chemicals such as solvents found in paints, non-water based glues, furniture strippers, nail polish, and gasoline fumes.•Removing the plastic cover of dry cleaned clothing, and airing out the garments in a room with open windows for 12-24 hours
- If possible avoid contact with incinerator discharge, preserved wood, or produce grown near incinerators
- For those in the workforce, improved workplace chemical safety standards are important for all employees, especially pregnant and lactating women and avoiding occupational exposure to chemical contaminants
- Talking to other family members who might inadvertently bring contaminant residue into the home and explaining your concerns.
Advantages to the environment
There’s no food more locally produced, more sustainable or more environmentally friendly than a mother’s breastmilk. It’s been called the most “food mile friendly” product there is. It’s a naturally renewable resource and gives babies all the nutrients they need for around the first six months of life.
Breastmilk benefits our environment as it requires no advertising, packaging, or transport and results in no wastage. No energy is wasted sterilizing bottles and refrigerating them. Breastmilk is the perfect temperature so there is no need to use energy to heat anything and water and detergent is needed for washing and mixing bottles.In addition breastmilk does not create pollution from the manufacturing and disposal of bottles, teats and cans.
Cows’ waste products contribute to the annual global methane emissions and methane is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, second only to carbon dioxide . Sewage from dairy cows as well as the fertilizers used to grow feed for them pollutes rivers and ground waters, affecting all ecosystems dependent upon the rivers and ground waters. In some places production of formula has a high use of fossil fuels.
Breastfeeding helps space babies by suppressing fertility in the mother, and is widely used by women throughout the world to help space their children, and thus providing a means of avoiding over-population.
Used correctly exclusive breastfeeding is a very effective form of contraception. Menstruation is delayed for an average of 14 months for mothers who breastfeed exclusively, saving vast amounts of paper used in sanitary hygiene products.
Savings in the NHS
- In both the short and long-term, breastfeeding protects both mothers and babies against both acute and chronic diseases. A recent report from UNICEF found that even looking at a handful of conditions the NHS could save £40m a year with just a small increase in breastfeeding
- Because breastfeeding improves public health less resources are needed from hospitals and community health service
- Breastfeeding helps protect babies against gastro-intestinal illnesses, ear, chest and urine infections, leukaemia, necrotising enterocolitis, cot death, asthma, eczema, coeliac disease, heart disease and sepsis
- It has a positive effect on brain development and lowers stress levels, has a long term beneficial effect on health•It helps protect mothers against ovarian and breast cancer, osteoporosis, postnatal depression and developing diabetes type 2
- Breastfeeding lowers a mother’s risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer by 4.3 % for every year of breastfeeding
- Breastfed babies are five times less likely to be hospitalised with gastroenteritis
- Breastfed babies have 15% fewer GP consultations in their first six months than babies fed on formula
- Breastfeeding also protects against obesity which is becoming an increasing drain on resources in the world. It helps babies to regulate their own appetite which will also have a beneficial effect the use of resources
- For instance, in the first 8 months of life a formula fed baby consumes 30,000 calories more than a breastfed baby, the equivalent of 120 chocolate bars.Do nursing mothers need to eat a lot more?
- Breastfeeding a baby does mean that a mother uses up more calories and may feel hungrier. The extra calories she needs depends on how much body fat she has laid down in pregnancy and how active she is. It has been recommended that 500 extra calories are needed each day but this may be too much for some
- A woman’s metabolic rate becomes more efficient during lactation and a small increase in grains, vegetables and fruit may be all that is needed
- Breastfeeding uses the body fat which women accrue during pregnancy, leading to a natural weight loss. Deliberate rapid weight loss after birth is best avoided as this leads to a greater release of toxins.Environmental differences in emergencies
- An Australian doctor, Karleen Gribble has written a report on infant feeding in emergencies . An emergency preparedness kit for formula fed infants is recommended to include 100 nappies and 200 nappy wipes, two 900g tins of powdered infant formula, 170 litres of drinking water, a storage container, large cooking pot with lid, kettle, gas stove, box of matches, liquid petroleum gas, measuring container, metal knife, metal tongs, feeding cup/bottles and teats/paper towels and detergent. The cost of this in Australia would be around $250
- A breastfeeding mother needs no equipment to feed her baby and her only cost would be for nappies and wipes
- Although we may think of emergencies as things which happen in other countries, the recent flooding experiences in GB show that an emergency can happen anywhere.
Past studies which have drawn attention to contaminant concerns have led to improvements. In the 1970s high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in breastmilk and this resulted in the toxic chemical compound’s production being banned by the U.S. Congress in 1979. Further research and initiatives may improve levels of pollution and contamination and benefit us all in the meantime breastfeeding remains the optimal way to feed a baby.
IBFAN (International Baby Food Action Network) say “It is most important to emphasise that in the past three decades the levels of dioxins in the environment and in food, including breastmilk and infant formula, have decreased, at least in countries applying the strict industrial rules of the Stockholm POPs Convention, confirming that the alternative is not replacement of breastmilk but prevention of dioxin roduction.”
Breastfeeding is a free, natural, renewable, safe resource which helps to minimise any effects of environmental exposure and is uniquely suitable for feeding human infants. If contaminants are found in breastmilk they will be in other food sources and the cause of the contaminant needs addressing, rather than suggesting that a mother abandons the many benefits of breastfeeding for her , her baby and the environment.
La Leche League International says, “In reviewing investigations of contaminants in mother’s milk…the research shows consistently that even in a polluted world, breastfeeding offers advantages which outweigh the risk of ingesting possible contaminants. Indeed, the benefits of breastfeeding may prove to be essential to compensate for and outweigh the risks of toxic effects from the environment. The focus of scientific concerns should be directed toward removing such chemicals from our environment, not casting doubts about the only unprocessed source of perfect nutrition for infants-human milk.”
Written by Anna Burbidge
Copyright LLLGB 2016