Flame retardants in Canadian breast milk raise concerns

TORONTO - Women in Canada have the second highest levels of brominated flame retardants in the world, after the U.S. Health Canada said the levels haven't been shown to be hazardous but the department supports an Environment Canada proposal to declare the chemicals toxic. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs are related to PCBs. The chemicals are added to foams and plastics in couches, mattresses, computers and TVs, saving lives by preventing them from bursting into flames.

Known benefits of breast feeding outweigh its theoretical risks. As the products age, PBDEs seep out. The chemicals make their way into the food chain, become concentrated in animal fat such as dairy and meat products, and ultimately end up in human breast milk. They are also absorbed through the skin. The risk to humans is theoretical. In animal studies, high levels of the chemicals disrupted thyroid hormones and were linked to memory and neurological problems.

FROM SEPT. 17, 2003: Flame retardants in Inuit breast milk

There has been a steep increase in Canadian levels over the last decade, according to Jake Ryan of Health Canada, who presented the data on Monday at an international conference on brominated flame retardants in Toronto. Ryan said for most of the women in the study, the levels weren't high enough to pose a risk to health. But some of the Canadian women had levels that could be dangerous for their babies, according to Prof. Ake Bergman, an environmental chemistry researcher at Stockholm University. "It's for the growing fetus, for the newborn, where you have the highest risk," he said. Enough is known about PBDEs that the Canadian government should be acting, according to Miriam Diamond, an environmental scientist at the University of Toronto who found PBDEs sticking to the inside of windows in Toronto homes.

Miriam Diamond

Diamond suggested working with industry to reduce production of PBDEs as well as legislating their removal from the marketplace in Canada, including imports. The European Union has banned two PBDE compounds and several U.S. states are following suit. Phasing out PBDE production One of the largest manufacturers of the two forms of PBDEs causing the most concern in North America is planning to phase out the chemicals. "We think that once phase-out is initiated at the end of 2004, hopefully over time we'll be seeing lesser and lesser levels out in the environment," said Peter O'Toole of the Bromine Science and Environment Forum in Washington, which represent BPDE manufacturers.

Dr. Robin Walker is a neonatalogist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. He agrees with Health Canada that the risks of BPDEs are not proven but adds newborns are highly sensitive to environmental pollution. "If the evidence is strong enough to persuade the United States and the European Union to remove certain of these products from the market, perhaps that evidence is strong enough to do the same in Canada," said Walker. Until then, Walker said mothers should continue nursing their babies because the known benefits of breast milk outweigh the unknown risks.