Breast milk Inuit

The critical question for me and for you is whether or not it is safe to breastfeed. Unless you are an Inuit woman (whose diet of harbor seals makes her vulnerable to very high levels of PBDEs) or someone who lives near the site of an industrial accident, the answer is a big yes. This is because the benefits of breastfeeding greatly outweigh the risks, and, frankly, formula is far from pure. Some studies show that breast milk may... 

Ayotte P, Carrier G, Dewailly E. 1996. Health risk assessement for Inuit newborns exposed to dioxin-like compounds through breast milk. Chemosphere 32 531-542. 

Breast M ilk. Recent reference values for mercury levels in breast milk in non-exposed individuals in the general U.S. population are very limited. The mean concentration of mercury in breast milk, based on a review of existing data from other countries, is 8 g/L (ppb) (WHO 1990, 1991). Mean concentrations of mercury in breast milk samples from the United States and other countries are summarized in Table 5-17. Pitkin et al. (1976) reported a mean total mercury concentration of 0.93 0.23 ppb in a midwestem community in the United States. This mean value is only about one-third the mean value reported for Inuit... 

The escape clause for females is lactation, the production of fatty milk however, while lactation allows the concentration of POPs in the females to decrease, it simultaneously mainlines POPs to the developing juveniles. Breast milk from Inuit women, consuming country food (traditional foods collected from the ecosystem), contains almost twice the POP contamination as that of women in modern setdements eating market food. Breast milk of Inuit women was consistent with that of beluga whales, and was seven times greater than that within the fatty tissue of Arctic char. It is not a stretch to say that the top of the Arctic food chain is inhabited by mammalian infants, the milk drinkers, be they polar bear, toothed whales, or humans. 

Dallaire R, Dewailly E, Pereg D et al (2(K)9) Thyroid function and plasma concentrations of polyhalogenated compounds in Inuit adults. Environ Health Perspect 117 1380-1386 Damerud PO, Aune M, Larsson L et al (2011) Levels of brominated flame retardants and other persistent organic pollutants in breast milk samples from Limpopo province. South Africa. Sci Total Environ 409 4048 053... 

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