The troubling question of dioxin in human milk

[Philip Fleischer <philip@coc.powell-river.bc.ca>]

The EPA Health Assessement and certain facility risk assessments (even
those 'accepting' a 10 pgTEQ/kg b w/da TDI) make it abundantly clear that
the breast fed infant is heavily dosed with dioxin.  Many babies may
be taking in the order of 100 pgTEQ/kg b w/da.

In the case of DDT or PCBs, some doctors (Needleman and Landrigan in
_Raising Children Toxic Free_ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1994))
recommend at some level of contamination that milk be pumped, in order
to unload toxins from the mother, but dumped, because such high levels
of toxins present far more risk to the infant than the the benefits of
breast feeding warrant.

I would like to know at what level (either just in fat or whole human
milk), the risk of breast feeding becomes unacceptable.

I have asked several authorities. So far I have been unable to get any
satisfactory answer, although in at least one case, the authority clearly
indicated discomfort at having to consider such a question.







Philip Fleischer    Philip@coc.Powell-River.BC.CA    604/483-4701