[CPEO-MEF] Perchlorate in breast milk

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Environmental Toxin Collects in Breast Milk

By Carolyn Colwell
Washinton Post
December 8, 2007

FRIDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have discovered the
mechanism by which a chemical known as perchlorate can collect in breast
milk and cause cognitive and motor deficits in newborns.

Used since the 1940s to manufacture explosives and rocket fuel, the
contaminant is still widely present in the water and food supply,
experts say.

And high concentrations of perchlorate in breast milk can be passed to
an infant and affect it's ability to manufacture essential thyroid
hormone, the new study suggests. Perchlorate can also lessen the amount
of iodide available to a mother to pass on to her infant, and a baby
needs iodide to produce thyroid hormones.

"The deficit of thyroid hormone is particularly delicate if it's at the
beginning of life because the central nervous system has not completely
matured," said study author Dr. Nancy Carrasco, a professor of molecular
pharmacology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/07/AR2007120701353.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org




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