Save breast-milk from pollution

Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: Human milk is the most natural and superior food for infants, providing a range of benefits for growth, immunity and development a significant decreasing risk for several acute and chronic diseases. However, breast milk is not pure. Pollutants have been intentionally or inadvertently produced and introduced into the environment. Due to long half-lives and fat solubility, chemicals tend to bio accumulate in long-lived species at the top of the food-chain, including in human milk. Through breastfeeding, a mother may transfer potentially toxic chemicals to the suckling infant, exercising systemic and harmful effects on the health of children. Although scientific evidence indicates that the advantages of breast-feeding outweigh any risks from contaminants, it is important to identify communities with major sources of human exposure, limit the presence of pollutants in the food supply and modify their critical short-and long-term action in children. Furthermore, by controlling the use of these toxic products safe breastfeeding could be ensured and encouraged. This review summarizes what is known about the relationship between environmental pollutants and contamination of human milk