Rocket powered babies?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02...orate_in_milk/

"US research has found that perchlorate - a chemical used in rocket
fuel and though to be linked to metabolic disruption in adults and
mental retardation in children - is widely present in breast and cow's
milk across the United States.

"According to a New Scientist report, perchlorate is made naturally in
the atmosphere, and subsequently finds its way into the water supply.
The US Environmental Protection Agency last week set a safe level of
perchlorate for drinking water, and although the quantities in tested
milk are below this, scientists warn that perchlorate's affect on
iodine uptake in humans - coupled to a general decrease in dietary
iodine intake - may pose a risk to health."

I hope no one takes this as advice to formula feed instead of breast
feed. If the perchlorate is in the water, then babies will get it in
formula, too.

Are we going to have to test mothers' milk to make sure that it's safe?
For Pete's sake. It still beats the alternatives.

I can tell you with certainty that most of you have rocket fuel in your
house. My husband did his thesis research, and our company is
primarily researching on hydrogen peroxide as a rocket fuel. Granted,
what's in your medicine cabinet is probably 3% peroxide, and 97% water,
while the stuff we use is 97% peroxide, 3% water, but still... And
Space Ship One - the vessel that won the X Prize - was fueled by
laughing gas and old car tires. I'm not kidding. So, rocket fuel is
all around you, and not all of it is hydrazine (the stuff that they use
in the shuttle, that when Columbia crashed they kept warning people
about - that's bad news, and tiny tiny amounts of it are toxic).

Anyone know anything about perchlorate?

Off to research further...
Amy (married to a rocket scientist, knowledgable enough to be
dangerous)

I meant to crosspost this to misc.kids.breastfeeding, for obvious
reasons...

wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02...orate_in_milk/

"US research has found that perchlorate - a chemical used in rocket
fuel and though to be linked to metabolic disruption in adults and
mental retardation in children - is widely present in breast and
cow's
milk across the United States.

"According to a New Scientist report, perchlorate is made naturally
in
the atmosphere, and subsequently finds its way into the water supply.
The US Environmental Protection Agency last week set a safe level of
perchlorate for drinking water, and although the quantities in tested
milk are below this, scientists warn that perchlorate's affect on
iodine uptake in humans - coupled to a general decrease in dietary
iodine intake - may pose a risk to health."

I hope no one takes this as advice to formula feed instead of breast
feed. If the perchlorate is in the water, then babies will get it in
formula, too.

Are we going to have to test mothers' milk to make sure that it's
safe?
For Pete's sake. It still beats the alternatives.

I can tell you with certainty that most of you have rocket fuel in
your
house. My husband did his thesis research, and our company is
primarily researching on hydrogen peroxide as a rocket fuel.
Granted,
what's in your medicine cabinet is probably 3% peroxide, and 97%
water,
while the stuff we use is 97% peroxide, 3% water, but still... And
Space Ship One - the vessel that won the X Prize - was fueled by
laughing gas and old car tires. I'm not kidding. So, rocket fuel is
all around you, and not all of it is hydrazine (the stuff that they
use
in the shuttle, that when Columbia crashed they kept warning people
about - that's bad news, and tiny tiny amounts of it are toxic).

Anyone know anything about perchlorate?

Off to research further...
Amy (married to a rocket scientist, knowledgable enough to be
dangerous)

wrote:
I meant to crosspost this to misc.kids.breastfeeding, for obvious
reasons...


Response from Jane Heinig and Paula Benedict:
Dear Friends,

Recent news accounts indicate that perchlorate contamination in breast
milk of California mothers has reached the point where infant exposures
exceed safe levels. The study cited to support this view was published
on the web on Feb. 23, 2005. (1) It is important that professionals
understand that the study cited includes milk samples from only 5 women
in California and no direct measurements were made of infant exposure.

While we are all concerned about the presence of perchlorate
contamination in the environment, women wh o breastfeed their infants
should not stop breastfeeding based on this report. This study does not
provide sufficient information about the average perchlorate content in
California mothers' breast milk, how much is transferred to the infant,
and what, if any, are the adverse effects of such exposure.

Perchlorate is both a naturally-occurring and manmade chemical found in
the environment. The chemical is used in a variety of manufacturing
processes including the manufacture of rubber, paint and enamel
products, fireworks, highway flares, and rocket fuel. Human
contamination comes from water and food exposures (including drinking
water, cow's milk and vegetables). Perchlorate competitively inhibits
iodine uptake in the thyroid gland, potentially reducing thyroid
function. (2) Impairment of thyroid function in expectant mothers may
affect the fetus and newborn, including delayed development and
decreased learning capacity. (3) However, published studies examining
the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to perchlorate in human
populations have produced mixed results. (4-7) No studies have been
published describing measured infant intakes of perchlorate (through
breast milk) or prevalence of adverse effects of exposure among
breastfed infants.

The study cited by the press has several important limitations:

.. While the researchers state that the participating mothers were
randomly selected, no description of their population sampling method is
provided.
.. A total of 36 mothers from 18 states participated in the study
and 5 were from California. Such a small sample size, however it was
obtained, is not sufficient to be representative of the general
population.
.. There is no description of the methods used for milk sampling.
Timing since the last feed a nd the completeness of milk expression
strongly influence values in chemical tests of human milk. Perchlorate
levels are particularly likely to be associated with recent exposure. An
expert panel has provided guidelines for milk sampling for chemical
testing. (8) There is no evidence that these guidelines were followed.
.. The researchers did not directly measure infant perchlorate
exposure. Hypothetical exposures were estimated from calculations using
assumed milk volume and a transfer rate of the chemical predicted by
experiments in rats. No information is provided about the age of the
infants in the study or their consumption of other foods and fluids.
Therefore, actual infant exposures are likely to vary widely from the
estimated values.
.. The researchers suggest that iodide levels in the milk samples
were inversely associated with perchlorate concentration (at the highest
levels of contaminat ion) but the sample size was so small that they
were not able to examine this association statistically.

Since the action of perchlorate is to bind iodide, women may wish to
discuss their exposure risk with their physicians and consider
increasing their iodide intake through switching to iodized salt or
consuming a supplement. This study does not provide any evidence that
California women should not breastfeed their infants.

Jane Heinig, PhD, IBCLC and Paula Benedict, MPH, RD

References
(1) Kirk AB, et al. Perchlorate and iodide in dairy and breast milk.
Environ Sci Tech, pre-publication on web.
(2) Greer MA, Goodman G, Pleus RC, Greer SE. Health effects assessment
for environmental perchlorate contamination: the dose response for
inhibition of thyroidal radioiodine uptake in humans. Environ Health
Perspect. 2002;110:927-37.
(3) Technical Briefs: Perchlorate: Questions and Answers. J of Envir
Health Nov 2004; 67, 4.
(4) Kelsh MA, et al. Primary congenital hypothyroidism, newborn thyroid
function, and environmental perchlorate exposure among residents of a
Southern California community. J Occup Environ Med. 2003;45:1116-27.
(5) Brechner RJ, et al. Ammonium perchlorate contamination of Colorado
River drinking water is associated with abnormal thyroid function in
newborns in Arizona. J Occup Environ Med. 2000;42:777-82.
(6) Crump C, et al. Does perchlorate in drinking water affect thyroid
function in newborns or school-age children? J Occup Environ Med.
2000;42:603-12.
(7) Li Z, et al. Neonatal thyroxine level and perchlorate in drinking
water. J Occup Environ Med. 2000;42:200-5.
(8) Berlin CM Jr, et al. Conclusions, research needs, and
recommendations of the expert panel: technical workshop on human milk
surveillance and research for environmental chemicals in the United
States. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2002 Nov 22;65(22):1929-35.



Response from Tom Hale:


I have reviewed this article on Perchlorate in cow and human milk. While
I have some problems with their methods of collecting milk (both cow and
human), the data is still somewhat preliminary, they simply have too few
samples to really make much of a case. They also tried to make the case
that the higher the perchlorate, the less iodide in milk. While this
seems logical, in two of their human samples (TX76, TX78), the highest
milk iodide levels reported were in mothers at supposedly high
perchlorate levels (11.3 and 12.7 ug/L). Seems kind of odd! In several
other cases(4) the higher the perchlorate level the less the
iodine...but this was only 6 cases out of 36 mothers.

The most important factor for mothers to understand, is that with high
perchlorate levels, the amount of iodine in their milk MAY be lower,
we're not really sure at this point. But has the incidence of hypoth
yroidism in breastfed infant increased lately? Not that I know of. I
just spoke with one of our Pediatric endocrinologists and they are not
seeing any change in the incidence of hypothyroidism as of yet.

These authors also suggest that mothers might want to supplement
themselves with higher iodine levels. Because iodine is actually pumped
into human milk, sometimes at high levels, I worry that the random
supplementation of mothers with iodine may actually overdose some
infants and cause more problems than we had to begin with. This is
because the overdose with iodine is sometimes much worse than the
underdose.

So at this time all mothers should continue to breastfeed and not worry
about the perchlorate issue. Have their pediatricians evaluate their
infants at the routine visits for hypothyroidism (which every
pediatrician does anyway), and not to worry about this contaminate.

In Summary:
1)--Perchlorate inhibits the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland, and
its secretion into hum an milk.
2)--The only known complication is hypothyroidism, which is easily
treated with supplements of iodine, or in rare cases thyroxine.
3)--Be extremely cautious of supplementing yourself with extra iodine,
you may actually do more harm to your infant by overdosing with iodine,
than by underdosing with "perchlorate".

Lastly, this is the third time in the last several years that
environmental contaminates have been found at low levels in breastmilk.
This and a lot of other data is suggesting that we humans simply must
become more proactive at voting for candidates that support
environmental standards because our whole future depends on it.

Tom Hale Ph.D
Professor of Pediatrics
Texas Tech University School of Medicine




--
tristyn
www.tristyn.net

"tristyn" wrote in message
...
wrote:
snip

So at this time all mothers should continue to breastfeed and not worry
about the perchlorate issue. Have their pediatricians evaluate their
infants at the routine visits for hypothyroidism (which every
pediatrician does anyway), and not to worry about this contaminate.

In Summary:
1)--Perchlorate inhibits the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland, and
its secretion into hum an milk.
2)--The only known complication is hypothyroidism, which is easily
treated with supplements of iodine, or in rare cases thyroxine.
3)--Be extremely cautious of supplementing yourself with extra iodine,
you may actually do more harm to your infant by overdosing with iodine,
than by underdosing with "perchlorate".

Lastly, this is the third time in the last several years that
environmental contaminates have been found at low levels in breastmilk.
This and a lot of other data is suggesting that we humans simply must
become more proactive at voting for candidates that support
environmental standards because our whole future depends on it.

Tom Hale Ph.D
Professor of Pediatrics
Texas Tech University School of Medicine

Thanks for posting this Tristyn ... ...and thanks Dr Hale!
Amanda

--
DD 15th August 2002
1 tiny angel Nov 2003
DS 20th August 2004

My wife has corresponded with one of the principal authors of the Texas
Tech study, Purnendu Dasgupta, who gave her some additional comments
about the study:

http://www.kellymom.com/health/chemi...-response.html

A key comment:
"I would like to assure you that even in my wildest imagination it has
not crossed my mind to advise someone to stop breast feeding because
perchlorate is identifiable in breast milk. There are so many
physiologic and psychological benefits of breast feeding, I truly
regret if our paper has caused any one to stop breast feeding. Also,
with improved detection technologies we can detect almost anything at
some level in almost anything."

Thank you for posting that. That is a great relief!