This research reports results of the analysis of 100 breast-milk samples from 98 lactating women in the cohort. Fifty of the women were nursing a first-born, while the remaining 48 had two or more children. The women completed a questionnaire that provided data on the date of the milk sample; number of children; history of breast-feeding; height and weight before, during and after the most recent pregnancy, and detailed information on amount and types of fish eaten from Lake Ontario and its tributaries in the 12 months before the most recent pregnancy.
Milk samples were analyzed for 77 PCBs; DDE, a metabolite of the pesticide DDT, and the pesticides hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and Mirex. Analysis of milk samples showed that DDE and nine PCBs were found in all 100 samples.
Milk samples from fish-eaters had significantly higher levels of several PCBs than that of non-Ontario-fish-eaters. The two most prevalent PCB subtypes, shown to be 30 percent higher, were also the most prevalent contaminants in Lake Ontario fish. DDE level was not related to fish consumption from Lake Ontario, analysis showed.
Kostyniak said this type of data is critical for estimating the doses of individual PCBs to assess exposure risk in newborns. A prospective study of pregnancy rates and of children born to mothers in the New York State Angler Cohort is being conducted by UB researchers in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine.
Additional researchers on this study were Casey Stinson and Hebe B. Greizerstein, Ph.D., both of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology; John Vena, Ph.D., and Germaine Buck, Ph.D., of the UB Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, and Pauline Mendola, Ph.D., formerly at UB, now with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The research was supp
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Contact: Lois Baker
ljbaker@buffalo.edu
716-645-2626
University at Buffalo
10-May-1999