Daily HealthBeat Tip

Safe as mother�s milk

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

We humans are basically highly complex carbon compounds. But sometimes other things get mixed in there � industrial chemicals that are a part of our modern world. We wonder if they�re harmful. And beastfeeding moms might wonder if the chemicals are OK to pass along to a baby in breast milk.

An international panel looked at that. And Dr. Cheston Berlin of Penn State University School of Medicine, who led the panel, reported on it at a conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration:

"There had been very, very few reports of environmental chemicals being hazardous to infants, and they usually involve episodes where the mother has a very large exposure such as an industrial accident." (14 seconds)

Berlin also says breast milk is the gold standard for feeding babies.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October 31, 2005

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