That's important, said Dori Gilels, who helped organize the Montana portion of the Pacific Northwest study.
All studies have shown the pluses of breast-feeding still far outweigh any potential drawbacks, Gilels said. Contrary to national wire service reports, Gilels said, the presence of PBDEs in breast milk is less of a concern than the fact that it indicates the levels the child was exposed to while developing in the womb.
Determining the PBDE level using lactating women is simply a non-invasive, relatively inexpensive way to get the numbers, she said.
Latino's numbers - 149 parts per billion - are moderate for American women who participated in the study.
But they are astronomical compared to women who live in other parts of the world where PBDEs aren't used or have been banned: 1.3 parts per billion in Japan; 2.1 parts per billion in Sweden.
The women tested in Oregon, Washington, Montana and British Columbia, had levels ranging from 6 to 321 parts per billion - and the numbers are thought to be doubling every two to five years.
"I would have anticipated it would be higher in more industrialized areas," Latino said. "It was somewhat surprising to me, given that I live in Montana.
"I'm an everyday mom who leads a relatively healthy lifestyle and it is disturbing to know that my body harbors these toxic chemicals and that I unwillingly pass them on to my child. It seems like these kinds of chemicals should be tested before they wind up in household products."
The toxic flame retardant is found in all kinds of consumer products, from computers to appliances to automobiles to mattresses to clothing.
"We tell pregnant women so many things they need to avoid," Gilels said. "One of the big issues to for us is this is something women cannot choose to avoid."
Gilels said PBDEs have been linked in tests of laboratory animals to impaired memory, delayed sexual development, altered behavior and disturbing thyroid hormone levels.
"The problem is there are 80,000 to 100,000 chemicals placed in the marketplace without any testing to determine their effects on humans," Gilels said. "PBDEs replaced a chemical previously found to be toxic."
And their chemical structure is similar to the PCBs banned in the 1970s, according to Gilels.
Four states - California, New York, Maine and Hawaii - have banned PBDEs, and Gilels is hopeful the United States will follow the European Union's lead and "and reverse the burden of proof from the public to the manufacturers." There are ways to manufacture flame-resistant products without using PBDEs, she said. Currently, "we don't have a way to regulate or study chemicals before they're released into products and the marketplace," she added.
Latino, meantime, continues to breast-feed Gabby.
"It's the exposure to them while I was carrying her that's more of a concern," she said. "It was upsetting to discover I was carrying this toxic chemical, and to know if we decided to have another child, I'd still be passing that on."
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