Breathe Deeply

In Sunday's New York Times Magazine there’s an article by Florence Williams titled Toxic Breast Milk? It’s a disturbing piece about the various chemicals that are stored in fatty tissues in our bodies and which are released into breast milk. The article does underscore the fact that breast feeding, even with chemicals in the milk, is still better for a child than formula. Even though the milk carries toxic chemicals, it also contains substances which seem to help a child protect against these chemicals. I find this only mildly reassuring.

The main problem appears to be PBDE’s (polybrominated diphenylethers), flame retardants sprayed onto just about everything in response to the rampant use of very flammable polyurethane. As I sit here in my house, I have to wonder what it is exactly that I’m breathing in as PBDE “appears to migrate out of its product and attach to house-hold dust.” Being fat soluble, they are easily stored in our bodies. Lucky us.

According to a certain Sandra Steingraber of Ithaca College, “There is almost no example of a toxic chemical in breast milk that doesn’t have a nontoxic substitute.” Well, thank you Mr. Chemical Corporation for putting our health first.

Reading an article like this makes me want to escape to, um, well, somewhere safer, more remote…. like the Arctic. Oh yeah, but that’s polluted, too. In fact, the Inuit have some of the highest levels of contamination because their diet relies heavily on organisms that, by being at the top of the food chain, are chockfull of toxic compounds. Mmmmm…. I think I’ll go get me some sushi.

To end on a happy note, I quote David Ropeik from the article: “The mom who lets her kids get sunburned and worries about PBDE’s is worry about the wrong thing."

Uh, thanks. I’ll sleep better knowing that. How about you?