Twenty-five years of surveillance for contaminants in human breast milk.
To monitor the exposure of Canadian populations, Health Canada has carried out six major surveys of breast milk contaminants, beginning in 1967. In these national surveys, breast milk was collected from nursing mothers at various times in their nursing period, and the concentrations of chlorinated hydrocarbons were measured. There was a downward trend from 1967 to 1992, in the concentrations of organochlorine (OC) pesticides and polychorinated biphenyl hydrocarbons (PCBs). This regression was observed for samples across Canada, except for a sharp isolated increase in 1982 for the Quebec Province. As the disappearance curves of the chemicals surveyed follow the same pattern for both Ontario and Canada, a similar decline could be expected of OC concentrations in human breast milk in the Great Lakes Basin.
Great Lakes Health Effects Program, Environmental Health Directorate, Health Protection Branch, Health Canada, Main Statistics Canada Building, Room 1101, Tunney's Pasture, 0301A1 Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0L2.
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Craan
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Haines
D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000032:analysis*; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D007306:Insecticides; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls