Alarming - Pesticides found in mother’s milk

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

A few days ago News 24 TV channel had a 30 min prog on this startling news report from Ganganagar dist in Rajasthan that showed doctors saying that the level of pesticides in mothers milk has gone so high that children are falling sick. Please read below. When doctors advise mothers to stop feeding new born with their milk, the children recover. Doctors ascribe it to high pesticides content in mothers milk.

It is most imperative to BAN PESTICIDES first and not let the issue be side tracked. It is devastating to hear that mothers have been advised to stop breast feeding which is most critical to a child's growth and well being. Further advantage will be taken by MNC's like Nestle after having invaded our rural villages centuries ago to promote their baby food products as an alternative to breast feeding!
It is infuriating and disturbing to watch the plight of millions of new mothers educated or illiterate seeking pediatric help today. Only because they do not wish to breast feed their new born. Instead they get so carried away by the cleverly marketed baby products which only leads to the child's deteriorating immunities as infants are most susceptible and vulnerable to attacks.

Both doctors and mothers have to find healthy solutions but to be advised to stop breast feeding since mother's milk has gone toxic is not on and not the solution. Address the urgent issue at hand "BAN PESTICIDES".

It is the moral responsibility of doctors too to research viable healthy alternatives rather than provide quick fix solutions. It is damaging as it can be misinterpreted that mother's milk can be substituted only adding to the coffers of the manufacturers of processed baby foods.

Yesterday, I did share this news in my session with Intel. Like i said "A massive assault has unleashed in our food chain with no accountabilities on the part of policy makers, and worse still consumers remain the mute spectators.

Consumers( Mothers) have got to wake up to this startling fact, raise a hue and cry against Pesticides but not stop breast feeding!

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/


---------------------------------------------------
Pesticides found in mother’s milk

Now, it seems pesticides have contaminated even mother’s milk. Researchers from Rajasthan University have found an alarming presence of organochlorine pesticides in the blood and milk samples collected from lactating women in Anupgarh town in Rajasthan’s Ganganagar district. Anupgarh is known for extensive use of pesticides in farming.

Anupgarh, located near the Indo-Pak border, has Asia’s largest foodgrain industry. It has a population of 29,548 (2001 census). Faculty at Rajasthan University’s zoologydepartment, Inderpal Soni, told TOI that organochlorine pesticides are reported to be lipophilic (ability of a chemical compound to dissolve in fats) and their presence in human milk and blood has been documented in different parts of the world.
Soni said newborns exposed to pesticides are highly vulnerable as their stamina and ability to concentrate get affected. They may also suffer from memory loss. “It also causes poor growth with several other abnormalities,” she said.

“We collected and examined blood and milk samples of 50 lactating women, divided them into four groups on the basis of different living standards — area of residence, dietary habits, working conditions and addiction to tobacco,” she said. The level of total organochlorine pesticides in blood ranged from 3.319 to 6.253 mg/l while in milk samples, it ranged from 3.209 to 4.608 mg/l. She said that greater pesticide residue was found in the samples of women from rural areas compared to those in urban areas.

Another researcher said that synthetic organic pesticides have been of tremendous benefit to man but their excessive use has caused considerable harm. Like in this case, the contaminated milk is taking a toll on infants.Even after the shocking revelation in the research project, the sale of pesticide continues




-------------------------------------------