Breast Milk and PFASs - Part 1

This caught me a bit off guard on my Google News Feed:

Huh? soon gave way to no, no, no...please don't go there.  And that was without looking at the data to support that headline.

Having gone through a public health masters' program, you get indoctrinated into the concept of the of "the greater good."  You learn that there is a risk of a negative health outcome with almost everything you do, drink, eat, breath, or come in contact with.  You decide based on what gives you the best outcome overall.  And you decide based on compelling evidence to do, or to do not.

I am a chemical hazard guy.  A hazardous waste guy to be specific.  I like looking at chemicals and their risk.  I buy into the notion that there are positive health outcomes when you decrease the amount (dose) of the chemical.  I also accept that there is a dose you - including a baby - can be exposed to where there is minimal risk of a negative outcome.

I also accept, advocate, and believe to be true the "Donnelly Risk Paradigm" which you can read about here.  Basically, if there is exposure, there needs to be uptake and there needs to be a negative health impact.  Without exposure there is no uptake, without uptake there is no negative health impact.  The problem here is, that even if there is exposure and uptake there does not necessarily manifest a negative health outcome since the body is pretty good at detoxifying stuff that gets into it.

Limiting exposure is a good thing but exposure and uptake does not mean a bad thing will happen (see the liver).

With this in mind, let's look at the paper that got Google to tell the world about breast feeding giving your baby toxic chemicals.

Philippe Grandjean, the study author and environmental health expert at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health stated that it was indeed an absurd situation breastfeeding women need to think of the kind of chemical exposures they could contribute to the child although breast milk is heralded as the best possible source of nutrition for the baby.

Wait...Harvard...no, no, no...Will this journal paper discourage a new mom from breastfeeding her baby?  Was that considered before they published it?  One news article goes on to quote one of the authors on this:

Grandjean and the other experts continue to emphasize that breast milk still is the best food for babies. But, it is just that it is less healthy and pure than was intended by nature and previously believed.

That's real helpful there professor.  What the public now sees is "Breastfeeding can expose babies to toxic chemicals."

Arggg.

Remember, the greater good!  Breastfeeding is for the greater good of the baby.  If you are going to tell new mothers that their breast milk is "less healthy and pure" then you should have anticipated it going full speed ahead to "breast milk may be tainted with toxic chemicals" once the press got a hold of it.  You and your cohorts on this paper should have understood this, so your research better show that breast milk is contaminated high enough so that continued feeding is more harmful to the baby then the benefits.

Before I go on, please note that I am all for this type of research.  It is important to understand exposure pathways.  If PFASs are causing harm, then this type of research is important.  But you need to chose your words carefully and keep this research on the down-low, because all the public sees is "Breastfeeding can expose babies to toxic chemicals."

And armed with that Google news feed title, can you blame a new mother for choosing not to breastfeed?

Next post: Part 2