Flame retardant in breast milk raises concern

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Flame retardant in breast milk raises concern

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Canadian women have second-highest level in world, Health Canada finds

 

By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

Monday, June 7, 2004 - Page A9

 

The breast milk of Canadian women contains the second-highest levels in the

world of a compound used as a flame retardant in computer casings and

household furniture, according to a new survey compiled by Health Canada.

 

The highest amounts of the contaminants, known as polybrominated diphenyl

ethers, or PBDEs, were detected in the milk of nursing U.S. mothers.

 

But women in Canada had levels about five to 10 times those in other

advanced industrial countries, such as Japan, Sweden, and Germany.

 

The amounts in U.S. women were double those in Canada, and exceptionally

high compared to those elsewhere in the world.

 

The international comparison was made by Jake Ryan, a research scientist at

Health Canada, who is presenting the finding later today at a conference in

Toronto devoted to the controversial chemicals, which some scientists fear

may be as dangerous as the polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that were

banned as an environmental hazard in the 1970s.

 

Health Canada official Samuel Ben Rejeb said the department is studying why

levels in Canadian women are so much higher than elsewhere in the world.

 

Health Canada and Environment Canada recommended last month that some forms

of PBDEs be declared toxic and eliminated from use. The European Union has

already issued restrictions on the substances, and several U.S. states plan

to follow suit.

 

" This is a poster-child chemical for something that ought to be zeroed

out, " says Tom Muir, a researcher at Environment Canada who has studied

PBDEs and is worried they may be contributing to thyroid disorders and

children's health problems.

 

Although the federal government is proposing restrictions on PBDEs, Health

Canada concluded that human exposure from sources such as breast milk had

not yet reached harmful levels.

 

But Mr. Muir said PBDE levels in the breast milk of a small number of women

surveyed in North America are approaching the critical concentrations

associated with health impairment from PCBs.

 

The highest reading in Canada was of one woman who had 956 parts per

billion of PBDEs in the fat of her breast milk.

 

The highest in the U.S. was just over 1,000 ppb. The average breastfeeding

woman in Canada has concentrations of about 60 ppb. Samples were taken in

all regions of Canada.

 

PCB concentrations become of concern when they reach 1,250 ppb, according

to Mr. Muir.

 

Health Canada said confidentiality reasons prevented it from seeking clues

on why concentrations seem to vary so wildly.

 

Mr. Ryan based his findings on a survey of almost all of the studies in the

world that have analyzed mothers' milk for the chemical. Scientists have

checked milk samples from Sweden and Japan dating back to the early 1970s,

finding almost no PBDEs.

 

But over the past three decades, increasing amounts of PBDEs have been

added to consumer products such as TV sets, computers, and the polyurethane

foam used in furniture to make them less likely to burn during a fire.

 

Levels in human milk have been rising in tandem with the growing use of the

product, and in Canada are now four times those in the early 1990s.

 

International comparisons made by Mr. Ryan indicate that breast milk has

about 100 times more PBDEs than samples collected 30 years ago.

 

Health Canada has been studying the chemical because of fears it is a new

pollutant in the food supply.

 

" We were interested in PBDEs as a new emerging class of persistent organic

pollutant, " said Mr. Ben Rejeb, who is associate director of Health

Canada's bureau of chemical safety.

 

He said that while levels of most other harmful industrial chemicals found

in breast milk, such as DDT, PCBs, and dioxin, have been falling in recent

surveys, PBDE concentrations have risen rapidly.

 

" This is unlike the other persistent organic pollutants. "

 

Health Canada denied a request from The Globe and Mail to interview Mr.

Ryan about his findings, but had Mr. Ben Rejeb answer questions about his

colleague's work.

 

It is not known exactly how PBDEs migrate from consumer products into human

tissue. They have been found in household dust and sewage sludge, in many

fatty foods such as meat and fish, and in wildlife.

 

Although there is little research on human health and PBDEs, recent animal

experiments with the chemical have linked it to learning difficulties,

memory impairment, and alterations in thyroid hormone levels.

 

The similarity of these effects to those of childhood attention-deficit

disorders, and the rising tide of adult thyroid problems, have led to calls

for studies into whether PBDEs and other pollutants play a role in these

ailments.

 

Mr. Ben Rejeb said Health Canada has been checking PBDE levels in food to

see if there is a link to the breast-milk findings.

 

The department has found the contaminant is present at about the same

levels in Canadian and European food, suggesting the high Canadian readings

in breast milk are due to some other source.

 

Because they're in computers and furniture, PBDEs are probably found in

large numbers of homes and offices.

 

But they are also present in many manufacturing companies and recycling

centres that deal with high-technology waste. " It would have to be related

to the use of PBDEs, " Mr. Ben Rejeb said.