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Article: Lessons from the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs): precautionary principle, primary prevention, and the value of community-based body-burden monitoring using breast milk. (Commentary).
- Article from:
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Levels of chemicals in humans (body burdens) are useful indicators of environmental quality and of community health. Chemical body burdens are easily monitored using breast milk samples collected from first-time mothers (primiparae) with infants 2-8 weeks of age. Currently, there is no body-burden monitoring program using breast milk in the United States, although ad hoc systems operate successfully in several European countries. In this article we describe the value of such monitoring and important considerations of how it might be accomplished, drawing from our experiences with pilot monitoring projects. Breast milk has several advantages as a sampling matrix: It is ...