PFAS concentrations in breast milk exceed screening values for drinking water

By Maria Marabito | Healio | March 4, 2022

Read the full article by Maria Marabito (Healio)

"Mean concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in women’s breast milk exceeded drinking water screening values for children, according to findings published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

However, researchers said the clinical implications of their findings are unclear “and should not be interpreted as a reason to not breastfeed.”

“Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are just one class of pollutants that may be present in infant nutrition (be it breast milk or the contents of formula), and there is little to no way to judge what levels are ‘safe’ for the infant to consume,” Suzanne E. Fenton, PhD, a group leader in the mechanistic toxicology branch of the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, told Healio. “Research, enhanced monitoring of these food sources and policies to limit pollutants in these food sources could improve child health.”

Data collection

Fenton and colleagues initially conducted a literature review of papers published in the U.S. and Canada on PFAS concentrations in breast milk. Only three papers were eligible for inclusion. To counteract this limited dataset, the researchers estimated nationally representative breast milk concentrations of PFAS in the U.S. using the most recent available data on serum perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) from the 2017 to 2018 NHANES survey of women aged 18 to 44 years, as well as nationally representative plasma data from the 2016 to 2017 Canadian Health Measures Survey of Canadian women aged 12 to 79 years."