Carcinogens in Human Milk

In human milk the far-reaching effects of toxic exposure are made frighteningly clear. We know that carcinogens can travel from mother to infant in her breast milk and this is not a new medical story. Scientists first discovered that human milk was contaminated with DDT over fifty years ago. A coup;e of decades later, in 1975, the largest survey of milk of American women was conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The study took samples from more than 1,000 women and analyzed them for several pesticides all of which the EPA describes as “probable carcinogens” in humans. The results: DDT was present in 100% of the samples; PCBs were in 99% of the samples; and dieldrin was present in 83% of the samples. The FDA measures the amount of toxins in store- View the rest of this article