"C8 and related chemicals used in nonstick pans and stain-resistant fabrics have been found in human breast milk, according to the first major U.S. study to examine breast-feeding as a possible exposure route. Perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, were found in all of the 45 human breast milk samples tested in the new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology. Toxicologist Kathleen Arcaro of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and other researchers tested the milk as part of Arcaro's ongoing investigation of links between environmental exposures and breast cancer. 'While nursing does not expose infants to a dose that exceeds recommended limits, breast milk should be considered as an additional source of PFCs when determining a child's total exposure,' Arcaro said in a news release issued by her university. ... Around the world, researchers are finding that people have C8 and other PFCs in their blood in low levels. Evidence is mounting about the chemical's dangerous effects, but U.S. regulators have not set a federal standard for emissions or human exposure." Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette May 4, 2008.FACT: 77 percent of mothers in the US breastfeed their newborn babies, according to a survey results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC). This is up from 60 percent in 1994. “The report shows that the initiation of breast-feeding is at an all-time high,” said Karen Hunter of the CDC.Breastfeeding rates remain unchanged for children six months of age. According to the New York Times:
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that mothers breast-feed exclusively for the first six months of their child’s life and continue breast-feeding with baby food as a supplement until at least the child’s first birthday.