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« Ready, Set, No Plastic | Main | Are we using the best available science to prevent breast cancer? »

Don't mess with my milk!

Last week I met one of the co-founders and current director of Make our Milk Safe (aka M.O.M.S.), an inspiring Oakland-based grassroots group that is fighting hard around the country to get toxic chemicals out of breast milk. This group strikes a real chord with me because they are motivated by the outrageous fact that human breast milk is loaded with chemicals. Chemicals that nursing mothers transfer directly into their tiny, new babies. Of course EWG firmly believes that breast milk is still the best milk, despite its contamination.

I can still recall the day when I first learned about this, long before working for EWG. I was nursing my first child, who is now 5. I've rarely been angrier than the moment I read in the New York Times Magazine about Swedish studies showing that PBDE's in human breast milk had doubled every five years since the 1970's (when they had taken samples), and that levels in the U.S. were 10 to 100 times higher than women in Europe and Japan. And to my amazement, no-one appeared to be doing anything about it. How could this first, amazing food of human life be toxic and we weren't marching on Washington? If not that, I wondered, then what?

So when I came across M.O.M.S. recently it was like coming home. Here they were, the mothers marching on Washington, fighting to get toxics out of their milk. Here's how they describe their mission, the reason for their fight:

Let's face it, moms—heck parents in general— are a busy bunch. We shouldn't have to worry about whether the products we buy are safe, but we do. Why? Because there is growing evidence that everyday consumer products we buy for our homes and families are tainted with chemicals that cause birth defects, reproductive, developmental, and behavioral harm, and even cancer. It's an outrage. And we want to do something about it.

We are working to build a massive movement of mothers and others who will step out from behind the changing table and speak out against the presence of toxins in our environment, our bodies, and breast milk.

Like EWG, these moms are working from a number of angles to make the world we live in more environmentally healthy. Two approaches that we share are educating consumers and supporting progressive legislation, like the Kid Safe Chemicals Act. They offer some excellent guidance for pregnant and nursing mothers, and of course you can join the MOMSquad if you're ready to make some noise about all this (not the crying baby kind). If nothing else, get on their mailing list so you know what they're up to. And if you're like me and always need a baby gift on hand, their onesie is perfect - it says what I feel so well: Don't mess with my milk!

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