Mothers transmit concentrated industrial toxins to infants through breast milk

Evidence

“The fact is that women are the first environment,” says Katsi. “We accumulate toxic chemicals like PCBs, DDT, Mirex, HCBs, etc., dumped into the waters by various industries. They are stored in our body fat and are excreted primarily through breast milk. What that means is that through our own breast milk, our sacred natural link to our babies, they stand the chance of getting concentrated dosages.” When the Mohawks found this out in the early 1980s, Katsi explains, “We were flabbergasted.” — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 119

Categorization

• XREF: Bridges to Eco-Justice pedagogy’s intergenerational justice thread and to ecofeminism: the female body as a waste sink. — connects to: Breast milk PCB levels ran 200 percent higher in fish-eating Mohawk mothers — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 124; Breastfeeding advice worked only because women first abandoned traditional fishing — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 125; Accidental PCB rice-oil poisonings killed infants and caused lifelong disorders — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 105 (+2 more)
• ADDENDUM: Connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article’s bodily-regulation theme, obliquely; mainly strengthens the sacrifice/body-as-bearing-cost thread.

Broader Connections

• Depleted uranium’s harm concentrates in children and accumulates through breast milk #corroborates (0.88) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 660
• Child-rearing theories long held that affects transmit through milk and lullabies #expands (0.80) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 598