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High Levels of Toxic PFAS Chemicals Pollute Breast Milk Around the World
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Intercept
Posted: May 20th, 2019
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/30/breast-milk-pfas-chemica...
Decades after DuPont and 3M first discovered that the perfluorinated chemicals making them fortunes could be transmitted from mothers to babies, millions of women around the world are passing dangerous amounts of these toxic compounds to their children, according to a report published on Monday. Womens breast milk in many countries now contains chemicals belonging to a class of compounds known as PFAS at levels well above the safety thresholds set by governments, says the report from international environmental group IPEN. In Jordan, for instance, researchers found breast milk contained, on average, 144 parts per trillion of PFOA, according to a 2015 study. Thats more than double the 70 ppt health advisory level the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set for that chemical in drinking water; more than seven times the 20 ppt drinking water safety level recently set by the state of Vermont; and more than 10 times the 14 ppt drinking water threshold the state of New Jersey proposed for PFOA earlier this month. One womans milk contained 1,120 ppt of PFOA, according to the Jordanian study, which also found that 96 percent of cows milk samples also contained PFOS and PFOA. PFAS chemicals used in nonstick pans, firefighting foam, and hundreds of other products have also been found in breast milk in at least 19 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, according to a study published in November in Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
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